Mission Week #76

March 19, 2012


Hello!

Another fast week......... We had lots of interesting things happen. Monday night we got a call from one of the Elders in the zone saying he was tired of his companion and wanted an E.T. (Emergency Transfer). Luckily our appointment had cancelled so we had time to go work out the problem. We asked him where he was and he told us. Then, we asked where his companion was and he said he didn't know. It turns out that they were riding bikes and the one that called us didn't feel like going anymore and the other one just kept going. We went and picked up the first one then found the other one riding around. We talked to them separately then had to leave them to go to our appointment. We found a member to drive them around so at least they wouldn't be on bikes. We went back later that night with the APs and had them talk out their problems. They have some serious cultural differences (Japan and the Marshall Islands) but as usual their problems had come from not doing the simple things. They are fine now. 

While we were doing our weekly planning on Friday we got a call from President Pitts. He said he had just got off the phone with Elder Jensen from the Presidency of the 70 and that he had a referral for us. That usually doesn't happen so we listened closely. The referral was for a lady that Elder Jensen had visited at a rehab center. We still aren't exactly sure what the Lady's situation is but from what it sounds like she had her records removed after being a member for awhile. We went and contacted he last night and she was really nice. It was cool to say when we knocked on the door that Elder Jensen had sent us. 

Friday I went and met with a BYU counselor which was weird. Weird to have to think about what classes I am going to take. They said you can go into my account and sign me up for American Heritage on March 26th. It is under "freshman envelope" classes I think. Make sure I get a legit professor. I dont have to sign up for the rest of the classes until June something. 

Saturday night we had an awesome miracle happen. The Ortegas, who have been ready to be baptized for years but have refused to get married, said they are ready to get married. The wife went to go visit her mom in California for 3 weeks and I guess it helped her realize what she needed to do. 

Well, gotta go. Have a great week!

Love, Elder Clark

Mission Week #75

March 12, 2012


Hello again,

Another week gone. Tuesday to Wednesday I went on exchanges to BYU and we had a good time. One of them, Elder Gallo, is from Fort Lauderdale but his family now lives in Orlando. It is funny when people ask us where we are from because Orlando usually gets the "Wow Disneyworld!" response and when we go on exchanges it is doubled. His companion Elder Harpole got baptized just over a year ago and this is his first transfer. It was cool to hear his background story because he comes from a pretty rough background and the gospel has helped him to make huge changes in his life. He has a very powerful testimony. 

Wednesday we had interviews with President Pitts. He said I could go talk to a BYU counselor if I wanted to discuss what classes to take. I guess that is a benefit of being 10 minutes from BYU. Only in the Provo Mission..... Speaking of BYU, about 2 years ago exactly Dad and I came out here for Christina's wedding and we checked out the place that I was going to be living at. We took a tour and everything. I had some serious Deja Vu because this week I did a baptismal interview for the BYU sisters and it was at the same place where I was going to be living and I remember walking around there. Time sure goes by fast. 

Hno. Gonzales is doing okay... He drank so we had to move his date to the 24th and he wasnt at church yesterday for some reason. Katy wasnt at church either. It is very draining trying to teach her because she has some crazy questions and the people we bring to fellowship her are awesome but talk a ton. In our lesson Friday her first question was whether or not Mary had other kids after Jesus. I opened up the bible right to the part where it says Jesus had brothers but for some reason she just kept saying that she was unsure. 

Yesterday we had a pretty awesome experience. Earlier on during the week a guy had called us saying that one of his employees who lives in our area had told him that she wasted to receive a priesthood blessing. We set it all up then met at her house. They arent members but there entire family was there, even her grandparents, and some aunts/uncles and cousins. The girl is about 20 years old and has a brain tumor. She had been taught by missionaries awhile ago and had received a blessing before. It was pretty powerful when we talked to them about faith, the restoration of priesthood authority, and miracles. Elder Williams gave her the blessing and the spirit was really strong.  We are going back this week and will probably start teaching her and her family. 

I hope you all are doing excellent. The weather has been great the last couple of days. Maybe not as perfect as Florida but respectable nonetheless. Have a great week!

Love, Elder Clark

Mission Week #74

March 5th, 2012

Hello again!

Today is sunny and in the high 50's and it makes me feel like I am in Florida. I have gotten used to the sudden weather changes that keep happening this winter. Weird because this week we actually had the most snow we have had all year but I am happy to see the sun. 

Tuesday we had ZLC. It is always fun to see what all the other zones come up with for their Zone Plans of Action. We presented it to our districts on Wednesday and Thursday and they are pretty excited about looking for miracles on a daily basis. It is amazing what actually happens with the people we are teaching . There were multiple examples in the last week of people having changes of hearts and opening up to the Gospel. 

Katy, the new lady who I think I talked about last week, is doing well. She didnt come to church for some reason but we saw her this morning and she is really receptive. Also, Hno. Gonzales looks like he is finally getting ready to be baptized. His date is the 17th so we are working hard with him. His wife got a job and has been busy so we havent been able to see her but it looks like she will probably get baptized a little later on. 

Last week we had a ton of appointments set up and I thought it was going to be a record week. It was a record week, however, it was a record number of lessons cancelled. Tuesday we had 8 lessons set up and 6 cancelled. 

Not much else happened last week....sorry this is kind of short. Today we are going to play capture the flag and volleyball I think. Elder Cebreros is serving on UVU which is in the zone so it is fun to see him every week for district meetings and on Pday. 

Have an awesome week!

Love, Elder Clark

Mission Week #73

February 28, 2012 (19 Months) 

Hi!

Last week went super fast. All day Tuesday we had a Leadership meeting which was awesome. Until then I had not met the 2 counselors of President Pitts. I don't know how it is in other missions but I guess President kind of runs the show himself here because we never see the counselors. They both spoke to us though and they are awesome men. Both are former mission presidents and I learned a lot from them. One spoke to us about general leadership and what makes a good leader. The other spoke about The Book of Mormon. He is a professor at BYU and teaches the Book of Mormon class and you could tell that he had a deep testimony of the divinity of the book and the principles which are taught there.

 

We had an awesome teaching week last week. The Gonzales family went to the Salt Lake temple and visitors center last week and that seemed to have a large impact on them. The parents accepted baptismal dates and the kids are slowly opening up. I have been going over there twice a week for 5 months now and it has been cool to watch them change. Their conversion is slower than that of others but it is happening. Two other people who made solid progress last week were Josie and Veronica. Josie is the 19 year old girl who moved from California to get away from a not so great way of life there and is really turning her life around. Veronica is the 22 year old whose sisters are members and has been coming to church for awhile. We saw her twice this week and she is praying about getting baptized.

 

Also, this morning we had a lesson with Katy. I think I mentioned her last week. Anyway, this morning we had a lesson with her and we invited her to be baptized and she accepted. At our last zone conference President showed us something from the scriptures that was pretty sweet. In Spanish it is the "Padre Nuestro" prayer, and in English it is "The Lords Prayer." I had read it tons of times but he showed us how we can apply it and I have been using it ever since. If you ask anyone in Hispanic culture to recite you the prayer almost everyone can do it. Very rarely, however, they are aware of what they are praying for. We asked Katy this morning to recite it, which she did, then we asked what the prayer meant and she said she had no idea. Part of the prayer is "thy kingdom come." We testified that the kingdom is here and that in answer to her prayers she is receiving the message of the Restoration. She thought about it for a second then said "wow." We haven't even taught her that much but she says she feels that this is what she needs to do.

 

Tomorrow is ZLC so this week we worked on the ZPA. It is a good one. 

 

I hope you are all doing awesome! 19 months tomorrow...wow!

 

Love, Elder Clark

Mission Week #72

February 20, 2012


Hello again!

Things are going well here in Orem. 

Last week I think I told you about Carlos. The guy who was doing awesome and came to church. He is still doing awesome, but lives in Saint George now. We got there on Monday for our lesson and he had all the books we had given him out and looked excited. He has been reading the Book of Mormon a ton and is in Alma. He also said he read the first 10 chapters of the Gospel Principles manual.  We started with a prayer and talked about faith a little then talked about baptism. We asked him if he felt the need to be baptized and he said "claro!" In other words, "yes!" Then, he went off about how he has been looking for years for the peace he has been feeling and how he is so grateful that we knocked on his door. Then, he said that that same day a friend had called with a job for him in Saint George so he was leaving the next day and that he was probably going to be living there from now on. Kind of surprising but the church is there too. I called him on Friday and he said things are going well and that he will be living there from now on. He also said he found out where the church is and that one of his friends had actually just got baptized too. Kind of sad not to be able to witness the whole process from beginning to baptism but I am grateful for the opportunity I had to help him out. Carlos is the 4th person Ive had in this area who has been ready to be baptized but has moved. Crazy. 

In the zone overall there were lots of changes with transfers. Every companionship had one person leave. My new comp Elder Williams is the man! The most notable attribute of his is that he is 6'7. He has been out for 16 months and I enjoy working with him. 

This morning we had an awesome lesson with a new investigator named Kathy. The Relief Society President who is a convert of about 2 years came with us and it was incredible. They both happen to be from the same city in Mexico and they related well. She said she felt everything was true and requested that we leave her something about baptism. 

Well time is up- 

Hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder TC

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