Christmas

Hey everybody! I hope your Christmases were all fantastic!! So much happened and I only have so much time, so I'll just talk about three or four things that happened, which is a bummer because this week was the best. 

First, We found two new investigators and a bunch of other awesome people who aren't new investigators yet, but probably will be as soon as we contact them after New Years. There was one person who was so prepared he barely even needed us there. He asked me for a church tour, told us to teach him a lesson, and asked for a Book of Mormon before we even had the chance to offer any of them. He's so ready to learn the about the gospel. And he wants us to teach his wife and daughter too, he's just too cool, I still can barely believe it. 

Second, I was in my first car accident since I came out to the mission field. We were riding with the ASL missionaries to ask someone in our ward to get them into the family history center, and someone nailed our rear bumper while we were at a red light. It's kind of silly that I was in a car for my first two transfers, then I go to a biking area and get in a car accident. No one was hurt though, so it's alright. 

Third, we had a super cool zone conference/Christmas devotional. If you ever get the chance, listen to In the Bleak Midwinter, it's super cool. Then after zone conference we did studies and went to dinner, and while we were at dinner the grandson of the people feeding us told us to come outside and look at this super weird thing in the sky. We went out there, and in the middle of the night sky there was a white cloud with light shining down from it. We literally thought is was the second coming for a minute, but then we found out it was a trail left by a rocket with supplies for the international space station, and since it was only a little bit after sunset the light was diffused through the cloud and made it look like a pillar of light. So yeah, go science.

Finally, because it's Christmas time we've done a fair amount of caroling, and it was super fun. The best night was when we did it in the Brea Hills area and gave away wrapped copies of the Book of Mormon while we did it. We gave away six copies and got them three return appointments, it was great. Plus, there was one guy who opened the door and started conducting us like a choir, and our small group of relatively unskilled missionaries actually followed him really well, better than the choir I sang in junior year of high school usually did! 😉 We sounded pretty good!

And a spiritual thought for Christmas! In 3 Nephi 18 Christ says, "Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do." I've had so much fun participating in the Light the World initiative and teaching people about Christ during this season. Lots more people actually talk to us, they have a hard time being impolite when you ask them if you can talk about Christmas. 😉 It's a bit of a shame to me when people follow His example and serve their fellow men at Christmas time, then forget them all and serve themselves through the rest of the year. So, my challenge for you all is to do as Christ did and serve others this year. If you participated in the Light the World initiative, that's fantastic, keep it up! If you didn't reach out this season, what better time to start than today? 

That's what I've got this week. Merry Christmas everybody! Thanks to all of you for being such awesome people!!

Love, Elder Clark

Also, here's a picture of our Christmas tree and our zone at President Golden's Christmas lunch at the mission home.

Happy Birthday

Wow, I'm glad to hear everything's going pretty well back there. :) This week went alright, we had a lot of appointments fall through, but people were letting us schedule a lot of appointments! That's an improvement from last week, and we have some really cool people lined up for this week, so I'm feeling confident we're going to be able to teach at least one or two of them. I still haven't gotten whatever you sent for my birthday, but I'm sure it'll show up eventually. ;) The pathway program sounds like a great idea, we had dinner with a senior couple of missionaries who are working in the pathway program and they were telling us all about it. It's honestly pretty neat, you can do a lot more with it than I thought you could.

Tuesday was an exciting day. We had a lunch scheduled with a less active member who works at a super nice restaurant called the Cedar Creek Inn. It was at the top of a big hill, so by the time we rode our bikes up there we were kind of exhausted. Then we went in and found out that the restaurant was too booked that day and she hadn't been able to fit us in, but she didn't have our phone number so she texted another member of the ward and told him to tell us and the message never made it through. So we turned around and started our ride back down the hill. As we started I decided it would be a good idea to go as long as I could without hitting the brakes, and it was super fun for quite a while. Then I came to one bend in the sidewalk and I realized I was going too fast to make the turn so I hit the back brake and skidded around the corner. I corrected it really well and was feeling proud of myself for handling it so well when my bike hit a bump in the side walk and I ran into a bush. I was able to stay on my bike and made it out unscathed aside from a bruise below my knee, but it was a nice friendly reminder to be a little bit smarter in the future. 😉 The other exciting thing that happened that day was a service thing we did at the house of a member from another ward. She had a dog that was the biggest spaz you've met in your entire life and it slobbered on everything. It was kinda gross, but she was super thankful for the help, so it's all good. 

Wednesday we did a service thing at a place called Stop Hunger Now. We put soy and rice into these little packages and sealed them and boxed them up. It was kind of monotonous, but the people we were doing it with were a lot of fun, so it was pretty enjoyable anyway. :) 

Thursday we had district meeting and helped a woman with a lot of cats put up her Christmas tree. After we were done she thanked us and she turned to Elder Wasden and gave him a hug. He didn't have any time to do anything about it so he just stood there super awkwardly with a terrified look on his face, it was hilarious. 

Friday night we had a really cool experience, we were almost done for the night and Elder Wasden felt like we should stop by a potential investigator we'd been trying to find but could never catch him home. When we stopped by he was there and he was really happy to see us. We talked to him for a little while and found out he had actually been baptized in Hawaii and was already a member, but he hadn't come since he moved to California because he didn't know where the church was or what time they meet. We shared a message about Light the World and he said he had been praying before we got there for a way that he could make a difference in the world, and he said he felt like we were the answer to that prayer. It was so cool, he's a young single adult, so we gave him the address and the times for the YSA ward and he said he definitely wanted to go. If we follow the promptings of the spirit we can be the answer to other people's prayers. :)

Saturday morning the Bishop was making breakfast for everyone in the ward, so we went over there. Elder Wasden apparently gave him the heads up that it was my birthday, because they sang happy birthday to me and made me a Mickey Mouse pancake. So basically my birthday was the best, you can't beat a Mickey Mouse pancake. 😉 Later in the day we met a really cool woman who actually had most of the lessons before and almost got baptized when she was 12 or 13, but her parents didn't want her to join the church then. She said she's 31 and moved out now though, so she wants to start listening to the lessons again! We also taught our first lesson to an investigator since I've come to the area. He's someone who the missionaries taught before, but lost contact with over the last three months or so. It was a really great lesson where we talked about his concerns and testified about the Book of Mormon, and he's going to start reading it again. It was a really good day. 😊

Sunday we went to church which was super good. There was a really neat Christmas musical number and the speakers did fantastic. Then we had a lesson on agency which turned into a really good discussion about trials and how they strengthen us. I'm so thankful that we're able to make our own decisions and I'm thankful that our Heavenly Father loves us enough to allow us to have challenges that help us to learn and to grow. :) After church there was a Stake Christmas concert where we were able to hear four or five choirs and one bell choir perform. They all sounded phenomenal, and we met some really cool people before and after. :) 

Other than that, the next time you hear from me will be over Skype on Christmas! I think I'm going to be doing it at a member's house in the morning, but I'm not completely sure. I'll let you know once I know for sure when we're doing it. Have a great week!

Love, Elder Clark

Bikes

Sounds like an exciting week for you guys! We're doing pretty well here, it was "really cold" for one or two nights in a row, meaning it got down to about 55-60°. 😉 It's super good for two reasons though, number one we're on bike and real cold weather would be the worst, and two because apparently it's pretty common for missionaries to feel homesick around Christmas, but it doesn't feel like Christmas time since it isn't even cold enough to be fall by what I'm used to, so that hasn't been a problem. 

I've discovered that riding a bike in the streets of southern California is a very different experience then riding around Richmond. It turns out I'm not very good at riding a bike, Elder Wasden can take corners a lot sharper and faster than I can and my legs haven't stopped being sore since I got into this area. I'm confident that by the time I leave here I'm either going to be really good at this bicycle riding thing or I'm going to crash pretty badly. Hopefully the first one. ;) 

Another thing I've learned here is that there is more than one kind of valve that can be found on bike tires. The tires that are on my bike have a valve I had never seen before, so when I got a flat on Wednesday we ended up walking to all of our appointments for the day because neither of us had any clue how to pump up my tire. When we got home I was finally able to figure it out, which was good because none of the stores we tried walking to sold inner tubes that we're the right size for my bike. 

On Friday we were able to help this member from our ward sort his collection of National Geographic magazines. He has every single issue from every single month since 1904, that's 113 years of National Geographic! It's pretty crazy. After that we were able to go to the live nativity performance,  and it was super cool. I should've got some pictures, but we we're too busy talking to people so I didn't. After The performance everyone went inside of the church and they had all kinds of Nativity sets from all over the world displayed, it was super cool. Again, I probably should've taken pictures but didn't. 

On Sunday we heard from someone who just got back from his mission in Taiwan. He gave a good talk, although he spoke so fast it was kind of hard to follow. A few times he'd tell a joke that was actually pretty funny, but by the time my mind processed it he was halfway through the next sentence and it was too late to laugh at it. He shared some cool stories though. :) After church we were able to go caroling as a district in the Brea Hills area, and it was a super cool experience. There was one man who started crying while we were singing and he said we made his whole Christmas. It's amazing to see how much of an impact something super small can make on people sometimes. 

That's mostly it! We have quite a few teaching appointments lined up for this week, but all of the ones we had this last week fell through so we haven't taught much so far. I'm excited about the people we've been talking to though, it's a really great area! And also transfer calls were last night and we didn't get told to move, so Elder Wasden and I are staying for the time being. Hopefully I'll be able to stay a whole transfer this time! 😉

I love you all!

- Elder Clark

Christmas party

So this week was pretty crazy, on Friday the Elders from the Birch Hills ward asked us if we could give them a ride to the mission home so one of them could speak with President Golden. I still don't know what the details of the situation are, but we took them back to their apartment and the missionary who spoke with President packed up and flew home the next morning. Since I was in a trio and we were already there, President Golden told me I'd was going to take his place as Elder Wasden's companion. So I changed areas partway through the transfer for a second time, so now I've been in four different districts, three areas, two zones, and had three companions and I haven't even officially finished my twelve weeks of training yet. It's pretty crazy, but I'm really excited for the new area. On the first day I was in this ward they had a super awesome Christmas party. The theme was Christmas in Zarahemla and it was so cool. They had these hand painted Mezo-american decorations all over, they had stuff for people to dress up like Nephites/Lamanites layed out on a table, the food was delicious, and the primary program they did was fantastic. I loved all of our ward Christmas parties back home, but this one was way above and beyond what I saw at any of them, we had a ton of fun. Then on Sunday we went to church, and there's some really awesome members who seem really willing to help with the missionary work in the ward. Elder Wasden is really great, he's only been out a transfer longer than I have, so it's definitely a different experience than being with two zone leaders who have been out for about a year and a half. I get a lot more speaking in when we're talking to people, so I think I'm going to start learning how to do stuff even faster, whether I want to or not. 😉 

I figured that with me going to California I wouldn't be having any weird foods, but yesterday and today I was proven wrong. I ate this Korean food at a member's house yesterday. I can't remember what it was called, but it was basically a stir fry except they had this weird fermented cabbage thing that you put on the top kind of like a sauce. It looked super weird, but it was actually surprisingly good. Then today we went to a Japanese buffet, and I ate all kinds of stuff I'd never tried before. I ate at least ten types of sushi, mollusk, octopus, fish eggs and a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember the name of. Most of it was pretty good, I wasn't a big fan of the octopus though. 

I can't remember very much about the rest of the week, but here's a cool little spiritual thought from my studies the other day. Since I've been out I've talked to a fair amount of people who don't think they need to go to church or read in the scriptures or be baptized because they believe in Christ and they "have a personal relationship with God." So lately I've been thinking about what it really means to have a personal relationship with God. I was reading in Mosiah and in Chapter 5 King Benjamin is talking about being made free through Christ. In verse eight he says, "under this head he are made free, and there is no other head whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that he should take upon you the name of Christ." So we can only be saved through Jesus Christ, and to do so we need to have His name written on our hearts. We are promised that as we do this, we will be able to recognize the voice of the Lord. "Ye shall hear and know the voice by which he are called." But doing this is not a passive thing, in the next verse he writes, "For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served?" We can't come to know our Savior unless we truly follow Him by doing the things that he asks of us. So that's why our works are so important. There isn't a single thing we can do to earn our way into heaven, Christ was the only one who could earn us that privilege. But as we go to church, serve our neighbor, and follow all of His other commandments, we come to know our Savior better and we come closer to Him. I think that's what having a personal relationship with God means.

Since I just changed apartments I don't know our mailing address. So sorry about that. I probably should buy a jacket, but I haven't. Maybe I'll do that next week. I love you all!

-Elder Clark 

Thanksgiving

My tablet just deleted my whole draft and now I basically hate my life, so this email is going to be brief. Sorry. :P

I woke up on Tuesday and my back hurt a lot, so I was considering staying in the apartment, but I felt like I should still go out. I don't feel like typing it all up again, but we got to see some sweet blessings as a result. And my back feels mostly better now, so it's all good. 

Wednesday we ate lunch at Subway and this guy with a huge white beard wearing a shirt that said he was a polygamist bought us cookies. I feel like that might be bad for our image, but hey, free cookies. 

On Thanksgiving we did a big service project cleaning up after an event at the Honda Center where they fed a bunch of homeless people Thanksgiving dinner. It was a lot of fun. Then had Thanksgiving dinner at a member from the Spanish stake, so it was super authentic Mexican food and it was delicious. There were these super good crunchy taco things and this soup called pozole. I have no clue what was in it, but it was delicious. 

Friday we started using the Light the World Christmas initiative for finding. Y'all should definitely participate with the initiative, because Christmas is the best.

Saturday I went to the A10 area again. It went well in the morning, but around 7 P.M. I started feeling a little sick, and then we knocked on a door and I got super lightheaded and almost passed out while we were talking to someone. So after we finished talking to her I told Elder Barnett and Elder Orr that I needed to lie down and we went back to their apartment and I curled up in a ball and slept until my companions came to pick me up, then I grabbed my blanket and pillow and went back to our apartment where I threw up in the bathroom then went to bed and slept until 2:30 or three the next afternoon. I'm feeling better now though, so today is pretty much back to normal. 

That's all for now. Till next time!!

-Elder Clark

Face to Face

I watched the face to face with M. Russell Ballard and Dallin H. Oaks yesterday. They said that on your mission you're told what you need to do and for the most part, when to do it. They tell you who your companion will be, where to live, where to go to talk to people, than when you finish your mission you suddenly have a lot more agency. Something important to remember with all the decisions you have to make is that while the Lord knows what's best for us and wants to help us, He wants us to exercise that agency for ourselves. So, in making decisions we have to ask for His guidance, but ultimately we still need to take charge and make the first few steps for ourselves. (Asking for the Lord's guidance is a super important step, I told that investigator with the Word of Wisdom problems if he wanted his life to change he had to take initiative and make a change in himself right before he stabbed his girlfriend, and in retrospect I wish I had emphasised seeking the Lord's guidance along the way more than I did.) That's all I've got for Britney though. Just remember that God has greater things planned for us than we usually have planned for ourselves.

That took longer to write than I meant it to. I don't have a ton of time because I try to write a response to anyone who sends me an personal email and I got five emails this week, so sorry if the rest of this is pretty brief. 

We did a lot of service this week, first we helped a member move some of her mom's furniture to a retirement home. She was such a sweet old lady, it was honestly realky fun. And her computer was running the version of Windows from like, 2006. Good stuff. 😉 Then I went to the A10 area on exchanges and helped at Mary's kitchen again. This time I went from table to table refilling drinks, it was a lot more hands on than the first time I went there. Then on Friday we helped our ward secretary lay sod, which was actually super fun. It was like doing a puzzle, except all of the pieces are the same shape and size and fit anywhere. So actually not like doing a puzzle at all. 

Other than that we had another of our investigators drop us, and we had all the other investigators we're still teaching cancel their teaching appointments for various reasons, so we did a lot of talking to people at the college and at apartment complexes. We met a lot of cool people including but not limited to: A hardcore Seventh day Adventist who agreed with all Mormon doctrine except for worshiping on Sunday instead of Saturday; a guy who likes singing and has some Mormon friends and wants to come to church the Sunday after Thanksgiving; a girl who is super nice and talks a lot. We talked to her about gospel things for about an hour and she seemed really open to our message. She wants to meet with us again on Saturday; and a man who puts way to much gel in his hair but is super nice and fairly interested in the gospel and even drove about an hour to come to church, which is awesome. 

We spent just under 10 hours at church on Sunday between all of our meetings and the face to face with Elders Oaks and Ballard. It was super good, we just got the spirit dumped on us all day long, I wrote so much in my study journal. 

The only other exciting thing was that Elder Baker and Elder Mills started a weight loss competition on Saturday. It was super funny, they were both eating everything all day and chugged like a gallon and a half of water before they weighed in. They both gained like four or five pounds in water.

That's about all, love you!

-Elder Clark

Zone Conference

Not a lot happened for the first half of this week, we knocked on a lot of doors but did not teach very many people. Then on Thursday we had another lesson with the girl at the institute. She's so solid when we're actually able to teach her, but she's super hard to contact. On Friday we had zone conference which was super duper good. We talked about how to have more effective conversations with people when we're finding and then did a whole bunch of practice so everyone could get it down better. I still wouldn't say that I'm good at talking to people, but I do feel like I've been significantly less awkward as I've tried to apply the stuff we talked about. 

On Sunday morning we taught a lesson to the girlfriend of a returned missionary. She's super awesome, she came up and asked us for a Book of Mormon last Sunday, and she apparently read all of the lesson pamphlets before we even started teaching her. She had a bunch of really good questions. She said she grew up Catholic, but stopped going because she didn't like a lot of the stuff the Catholic church does, then she said she liked our church a lot more because the things we do make a lot more sense. She's super cool, we should have another lesson or two with her next week. 

Today we're having a combined P-day activity with the Spanish missionaries that cover our zone, so we're super excited. Apparently there have been some ill feeling between Spanish and English missionaries in the past, so President Golden is having us do more combined things so we can interact with them more and eliminate any such contention. We're super pumped, it should be really fun.

The only other thing is Saturday, which was so crazy I was going to just skip over it, but I think I am going to tell you about it and just not go into a ton of detail. Basically one of our most progressing investigators, the one who was overcoming Word of Wisdom problems, went to jail because he got drunk and stabbed his girlfriend. The girlfriend is doing okay, she was actually the one who texted us and told us about it. But yeah, we dropped him and probably aren't going to be meeting him again any time in the near future. California is a crazy place.

Anyways, other than that we're doing good! I still, don't have any pictures because I still think my hair looks dumb, but I love you all!

-Elder Clark

November

Hello!!

I keep forgetting it's November already. It was over 100° last week and it's been in the seventies all this week, so it's crazy to think that it's snowing back home. 

I can read emails during the week, but I don't usually think about them very much until P-day since I can't respond. So feel free to keep sending them earlier if you want, I'm fine either way. 

We went to a barber shop last Monday, and he did fine on Elder Mills and Elder Baker, but he just chopped mine super short, I could have done the same thing myself and not had to pay any money. So, since I don't like my haircut at all, I didn't take any pictures for you this week. Maybe it'll look better by next Saturday. ;)

On Halloween I was studying the section in Preach my Gospel about helping people overcome addictions because we have an investigator who's trying to overcome some word of wisdom problems. At The end of the section there was a suggestion for a personal study activity that said, "Think of some habit you have—something you do frequently, without thinking, such as cracking your knuckles, adjusting your glasses, eating too much, or sleeping too late. Now try to go one day without doing it once. When you succeed, try to go a whole week without doing it... Then try to imagine how much harder it is for an investigator to conquer an addiction such as tobacco or alcohol abuse." I decided to give it a try, so this week I've been trying not to do my little pen spinning thing. It was super cool because on Thursday we met with that investigator at about 7 P.M. and we found out that he had gone the whole day without drinking any alcohol, and I hadn't even made it to lunch time without spinning my pen. It really testified of the things we can accomplish when we have the Lord on our side. He's having more success fighting alcohol than I am stopping my little pen thing, and that's not even an addictive substance. It's been so awesome to see how much progress he's made since we met him, he's basically the best. 

Nothing else very noteworthy happened until Saturday when we got to go to the Newport Beach grounds tour! It's a super small temple, but it's beautiful, I'm super excited for when I get to go inside. After the temple tour Elder McMurrey gave us the old Placentia zone leaders phone. They had us keep our other phone since some of our investigators already have that number, so we have two phones now. The first day was adventure because the Placentia phone was dead when Elder McMurrey gave it to us, so we we're trading the one good battery between the two phones so we didn't miss any texts from anyone on either phone. 

Then on Sunday we went to church, which was super good. So yeah, it was kind of a slow week, but it was good. That's all for now, talk to you later!

Love Elder Clark

Pumpkin carving

I'm glad to hear things are going so great over there. :) Just so Ammon knows, Madi said she went to watch one of Sky View's practices and she said and I quote, "Ammon is one of the best players on the mixed team. I'm not even exaggerating! He went for and caught catches that many of the other kids probably wouldn't have tried to get." So yeah, he's basically the best. ;) 

After P-day we met someone who has a lot of word of wisdom problems, but wants to change. He was pretty drunk, so we just shared a scripture and set up a time later in the week when we could meet while he's sober. Then we went to the FHE activity and carved some pumpkins. We showed up pretty late and we talked to people for a while, so I only had about fifteen minutes to actually carve a pumpkin. I tried to make the angel Moroni, it sorta worked. 

Tuesday I did my first exchange where I was the person that left the area, so that was pretty exciting. The area I went to was on bike, so I got to ride a bike around all day. It was hot, and I was pretty sore the next morning, but it was a lot of fun. I got along really well with Elder Tousley. When I got back the 104° weather had baked our pumpkins, so it looked like a shriveled up mushroom. It's crazy that it's almost November, with the heat it feels like it's still June. 

Wednesday we did a lot of finding without a lot of success, but then at the very end of the day we met a fellow with a cool beard, and we set up an appointment to teach him the next day.

Thursday we went to our lesson with the guy with the beard, and it went great! He understood it really well and he wants to get baptized! Then we went to the institute and taught the less active member we met there last week, and we taught the girl from institute last week and set a date for her to get baptized too! They're both super awesome, I'm really excited we get to work with them. 

Not a lot happened on Friday. We taught the guy with the word of wisdom problems, and he was still drunk. So we shared a scripture and told him we'd come by in the morning since he doesn't start drinking until the evenings. 

Saturday we went over at 10:30 and he had just woken up, so he hadn't drank any alcohol. We taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and set some goals to help him stop drinking. He understood everything really well, and He said he thinks he's ready to join the church! 

Sunday morning my brilliant companion put hydrogen peroxide in his eye. He said his peripheral vision was being weird, and apparently that was his solution. It burned his eye, and he had to rinse it with water for like, five straight minutes. His vision did go back to normal though, so maybe he was on to something. Anyways, after that fiasco we went to our meetings and church. There were supposed to be four of our investigators there, but when sacrament started we still didn't have anyone. At the end of sacrament meeting we realized that one had come in late and sat in the back, and he had a really great experience, which was super cool. 

That's mostly it for the week. Today I got a haircut, and I'm not sure why I paid $6.50 for it, he just cut the whole thing super short, I probably could've done it myself. It's all good though, now I won't need another haircut for a while. ;) That's about it, love you all!

Elder Clark

New Investigator

Tuesday we went to an institute class where they talked about the Kirtland Temple. It was cool, i learned some interesting new stuff. Then we had a cool service project where they had us set up a spook alley for an elementary school. It was super fun, we had a blast. Then we knocked some doors in Anaheim Hills, but nothing too exciting happened. 

Wednesday we helped Joe with some more hard work. We dug up a palm tree from one spot in his backyard and moved it to another spot in his backyard. Then we talked to some people at the institute and drove to Anaheim Hills, except we got stuck in traffic for over an hour on the way there, so we didn't get to talk to very many people. 

Thursday was awesome, we had district meeting in the morning and some service in the afternoon, then we went to the college after dinner. We had so many miracles happen while we were at the college! First we met a girl who had talked to missionaries in the past and was going to get baptised before her mom told her she didn't support it. We talked to her for a while and she was super cool. Then we were walking towards a different part of the college and a less active member caught up to us and started talking to us. While we were talking to her another member who was going to an institute class came over and joined our conversation and bore his testimony about how he had recently come back to the church. It was so good, we talked to him later and he said he saw us and felt like he should come over, but was late to institute so he went into class instead. When he was in there he kept feeling like he should go over and talk with us, so he got up and came over, and now he's going to start giving her a ride to church and helping us with a new investigator we have. He's super awesome, I think he's studying the scriptures even more than we are as missionaries right now. After we finished talking with them we walked further into the college campus. Along the way we walked past this really rude guy who lived in our old area. He started yelling that Joseph Smith was racist and swearing at us so we just kep walking. Then when we got a little ways away from them two college kids walked up to us and asked what the guy was yelling about. We told him who we were and he asked a few questions about our message. We were able to have a pretty solid gospel conversation and got his phone number so we could tell him more later, it was pretty awesome. Then we talked to a few more people and walked back to the institute to talk to a few members as they left class. We got talking to one member when the institute teacher came up behind us and introduced us to a girl who was crying a little. He told us that she came up to him at the end of the lesson and told him that she really felt something during his class and wanted to learn more. So we went into a different classroom with her and her boyfriend who was a member from Los Angeles and taught her the restoration. She's our first real investigator in this area, so we were super pumped. It was such an awesome day, the Lord was just putting people who were prepared to hear the gospel in our path the entire evening and all we had to do was open our mouths and talk to them. It was so cool to be able to see the Lord work through us and reach out to those people. 

Friday we did an end of transfer meeting for the new missionaries and their trainers, then studies and weekly planning. By the time we finished all that it was dinner time, so we ate dinner and went proselyting. We were able to teach a thirteen year old kid that we met last week, and he was such an awesome kid. He knew the bible super well and we were able to teach him the whole restoration and invite him to be baptized. It was so cool, he was a lot more prepared than I would've been when I was fourteen. After we taught the lesson we called up the sisters who are in charge of his area and gave them his contact information so they could take over teaching him since we're just over the YSA. That's about it.

Saturday we did exchanges with Elder Boss and Purnell, so Elder Mills went with Elder Purnell and Elder Boss went with us for the day. We knocked doors and talked to people on the street the whole day. We didn't find any people who wanted to talk to us, but Elder Boss and I both got a lot better at talking to people on door approaches, so it was good. 

Sunday we went to church. I really liked the lesson in priesthood, we went over some teachings from President Hinkley about loving those who aren't of our faith. Then after church we got in the car and were driving to our area when we realized we were practically out of gas and only had 16 cruising miles left on the car, and the closest of the people we were going to talk to today was about eight miles away. Since we didn't want to buy gas on Sunday we decided to drive to that person, park the car, and walk around that area knocking doors for two or three hours. After a while we had run out of potential and previous investigators in that area, and we weren't having any success knocking doors, so we decided to go back to the leasing office at the apartment so we could try to contact people over the phone and through Facebook. When we got back to the apartment the car said we had enough gas to go zero miles, so it's a good thing there's a gas station right next to our apartment. 

Today we got gas, we were able to make it to the station without running out, then went to this place called the Swap Meet. It was like a mall except more ghetto. It was kind of fun, definitely not like anything I've seen in Utah. And now we're at the church sending emails, so that's about it. We're finally starting to get the hang of this YSA ward, although transfers are next week, so they may end up moving us again. We'll just have to see what this next week brings. Bye, I love you all!

-Elder Clark

Fire

We're now covering the Anaheim Hills area for the Craig Park YSA ward, which is where the fire was, but my athsma has actually been totally fine. I think it's because there's so much oxygen at the lower altitude. There actually haven't really been service opportunities with the fire. The houses were either untouched or burned to the ground, and there isn't a lot you can do to help when there isn't any more house. The area we're covering now is a super rich area, there are very few houses that are worth less than a million dollars. It's definitely a very different experience from the ghetto, dumpy apartments we were at before, there's a lot less people out and about, and most of the people we do talk to are far less polite. Not all of them though, we have talked to some really great rich people, and the ward is awesome. I think more than half of them are returned missionaries. I appreciated the package, tell Dannika thanks for all of the letters. The glasses you sent me are definitely not my prescription though, and they're too small for my face. Plus I brought both of my pairs, so I'm thinking you sent me Ammon or Josh's glasses. 

A lot of this week was just knocking doors and having people tell us they weren't interested in hearing from us, so I'll just hit some highlights.

Tuesday we had dinner with the elders quorum president. He actually grew up in Hyde Park and I went to high school with his little brother. His brother's name is Josh, but I can't spell his last name so I'm not going to try.

Wednesday we got to go to institute! We went in the morning and introduced ourselves to the institute directors at the colleges in our area and one of them told us he had non-members taking his classes and wants missionaries to start coming to some of the classes and introducing ourselves to them. It was just like institute/seminary back home, and it was kind of nice to have a familiar experience in the middle of all the crazy new stuff that's been happening. 

Thursday we set up a table at Cal State and walked around just talking to college kids. It was really awesome, we got to talk to so many people, and it was a lot of fun. And want to know what's super awesome? I had two different non-members ask me for a Book of Mormon without me even offering one! The first guy literally walked up to me and said, "Are you a mormon?" So I was like, "Yeah." Then he asked where he could go to buy a Book of Mormon! So I told him we were selling them and if he gave me 10$ I could get him one. Just kidding, I gave him the one I was holding and talked to him a bit about how he heard about the Book of Mormon and what he knew about it, then I told him a little about the restoration and asked if we could come by later and teach him more. He didn't want to give us his number yet, but he had us write our number in the book and told us he'd call if he had any questions, so hopefully we hear from him again later. Then later that day we we're going around looking for previous investigators and introducing ourselves to members, and one of the people we talked asked if we could give his dad a blessing, and I got to give the blessing! It was super cool, the words really do just come to your mind, all I had to do was say them. 

Friday we met with President Golden and tried to find people. No one wanted to talk to us, but we tried real hard.

Saturday we were visiting people up by the burnt out houses, so we went and checked those out while we were there, then we went to the hospital because that member from our last ward who got in the motorcycle accident had to go back because he got an infection. He had to have emergency surgery, but he should be all set now to make a complete recovery, so that's good. 

Sunday we went to the YSA ward! We got to introduce ourselves to the bishop and meet a lot more members, and they're all awesome. They also fed us steak at the linger longer afterward, so that was pretty great. Then we went out to Anaheim Hills to try to find people again, and we were finally able to set up some solid return appointments, so we should actually be able to teach some lessons this week! It was a really great day.

So yeah, it's been a slow process, but I think we're starting to figure out how to be effective in our new area. We have some new ideas to try out this week, so we'll see how they work out. That's pretty much it for this week, I love you all!

Love,

Elder Clark

Skype Romania

Thanks for those scriptures, I'll definitely check them out while  I'm doing personal studies. As far as treats go I'm in the mood for fruity things and individually wrapped stuff is better because I don't eat it quite as fast that way. Also do you think you could order two or three short sleeve shirts and have them mailed here? It's pretty hot even though it's late October. 

So this week the boundaries for a couple of the stakes in our mission, so we had transfers last night so that the mission areas match the new ward boundaries. We got the calls where they told us who's going to be where last night, so that's what is on everyone's mind right now. I'll still try to remember some of the stuff that happened the rest of the week though.

On Tuesday we were able to do the Skype lesson with the missionaries in Romania. It was pretty cool, even though we literally just set up the call and then sat there and listened while they all talked in Romanian. We also had one of our investigators drive by while we were waiting for the Romanian investigator to show up, and he stopped and got out of his car to talk to us! He was cool, he's a little taller than me and says "dawg" every two sentences or more. We gave him a tour of the church building and talked to him a little about our beliefs. He had a few questions, and as we were answering them he kept saying that he way we did it made a lot more sense than the church he went to. It was really good, he seemed to have a much bigger desire to learn more when he left than when he got there. In the afternoon some members of our ward fed us a big, delicious dinner which I was barely able to finish. Then we went to the birthday party of a new investigator, and they fed us another dinner! I don't think I've ever eaten that much in my life, and I still wasn't quite able to finish it.

Wednesday Elder Maynes visited the mission, so he talked to us for most of the morning. He talked a lot about the importance of always trying to find new investigators, even when  you already have people to teach. That way you're always able to teach the people who are most prepared to hear the gospel, and you aren't spending too much time with people who are letting you teach them, but aren't prepared to change. He gave us a whole bunch of other really inspired advice, but I'm not going to talk too much about it. After that, we went out looking for new investigators. 

Thursday we did exchanges, so Elder Mills left and Elder Baker and I worked with Elder Jorgenson. We spent the entire day trying to find potential investigators and talking to people on the street. We were able to set up quite a few return appointments, and Elder Baker taught me how to introduce us in Spanish. You say, "Hola, somos misioneros de la iglesias de Jesucristo de los santos de últimos días." It means, "Hey, we are the missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." That's all I know, so after that I'm pretty useless, but it's still cool. 

Friday we had interviews with President Golden and did a ton of finding and setting up more return appointments. I don't remember too much of it to be completely honest. 

Saturday we did exchanges with Elder Tousley. We were able to teach a lesson with a guy named Juan (I'm not technically supposed to use people's real names, but we've literally met at least eight people named Juan in the three weeks I've been here, so I feel like it's fine). Elder Mills had talked to him before Elder Baker and I got here, and he felt like we should stop by. He let us teach him about the restoration and it was super powerful. He wants to read the Book of Mormon and we set up another appointment for Tuesday. He seemed like he really felt the spirit in our lesson. From there we did some more finding, then tried to teach the drunk guy from last week. He was asleep, and he asked if we could come again next week because he wanted to read more of the Book of Mormon before he talked with us, so we rescheduled for next Saturday. On the way out we came across a man selling Elote, or as Elder Tousley called it, "Corn on the Curb" basically there was a guy who was pushing a cart with a bunch of food on it, and we asked him for tres Elote. He pulled out three ears of corn and put cheese and chili powder and other cheese and some white pasty stuff on them, then we gave him six dollars and ate the Elotes. It was delicious, definitely well worth the two dollars I payed for it. Later that day we visited Grandpa, who's a 93 year old man that Elder Mills taught and baptised last transfer. He's really funny, and since he's 93 years old he tells some pretty incredible stories. But anyways, we were visiting him to check up and see how his Book of Mormon reading has been going, and he pointed us to where he was keeping his book and told us he had some pictures in there to bookmark his spot. We pulled out the Book, and his bookmarks were on page 624 which, in case you weren't aware is in the index in the middle of the H's. It was so funny, we all laughed for a minute or two, then told him that he was finished and helped him start it over. 

Yesterday we went to the stake meeting where they told us what the new stake and ward boundaries are. They completely disbanded one stake and made the stake we were In into four wards. Then we just went proselyting like normal while President Golden and the APs decided where to put all the missionaries. We were able to do a lot of finding, we talked to a lot of people and were able to share good, quality gospel conversations with three or four people. Then we got back to the apartment and waited for the APs to call and tell us where everyone was going. The called us, and we're being moved to the YSA ward. It's pretty crazy, we're not even going to be teaching most of the people we were talking to for the first three weeks of my mission, and we're going to have to do a lot of stuff this week with the sisters who they moved into our area to introduce our investigators to them and do pass off lessons. We also don't even know what our boundaries are as of right now, but we'll probably end up covering about half our mission, and it's not going to include any of the area that the rest of our zone is in. It's pretty crazy, we really have no clue what's going to be happening this week. Basically our plans as of right now are to go to the FHE activity to meet ward members and figure out what is even going on, and decide what to do from there. So yeah, we'll see how all of that goes. 

Today we ran a few errands and went to the mission office to pick up supplies. When we were about halfway through shopping we saw a gigantic pillar of smoke a little ways away. Apparently there's a big fire in Anaheim Hills, so some Sister missionaries got evacuated out of that area. We had ash falling down on us while we were at the mission home, so we're pretty close to the fire. It should be fine though, they were talking about it while we were in the mission office and it's plenty far away from where we're staying, but aparently it's the new area we we're going to be proselyting in. So yeah, it's been a crazy couple of days, but I'm doing great and I'm excited for the new area!

Love you guys!

Elder Clark

Conference

How are you guys doing? My week's been great, we taught some awesome lessons and some of our investigators are starting to get really interested. Apparently Elder Mills lost the key to our P.O. box last transfer, so if you want to send letters or packages you should just keep sending them to the mission office so we can pick them up on P-days. What did you guys think of conference? I thought it was superb, there was a lot of stuff in there I really needed to hear

Tuesday we helped one of the members in our ward level some ground next to his patio so he could lay a brick path. He's a cool guy, it was actually kind of fun. Later we visited a Romanian family that wants to learn about the church, but only speaks Romanian and Italian, neither of which are languages we speak in the mission. The Father understands a little bit of Spanish though, so Elder Baker talked to him and we were able to set up a time for the next Tuesday when we can Skype the missionaries in Romania and have them teach the family a lesson. It's cool to see how technology can help us reach people we wouldn't be able to communicate with without it.

Wednesday we did exchanges, so we traded Elder Baker for Elder Phelps. It ended up being a really crazy day, so as far as proselyting all we did was teach one investigator and shared a message with two recent converts. The lesson with the investigator was the first thing we did in the morning. He's a black guy who is blind, and he's awesome. He loves to talk about religion and Jesus, and he knows the Bible really well. He believed that Joseph Smith had a vision, but he doesn't believe that he was a prophet, which doesn't really make sense to me. He wants to continue hearing from us though, so we'll keep working with him. After  we volunteered at this place called Mary's kitchen where we served a meal to a bunch of homeless people. Near the end of that we got a text saying that the son of a member in our ward got in a motorcycle accident and needed a blessing. So we rushed straight to the hospital as soon as we got out of Mary's kitchen. Elder Mills gave him a blessing and they asked if we could go visit his dad and let him know how he was doing, so we went over there and talked to him for a while. After we taught the two recent converts, and it was already time to meet with the other Elders and trade Elder Baker back. Also we watched the Disneyland fireworks while we were waiting for the other companionship to get to the church, so that was cool. 

Thursday we met with a new investigator and he wants to be baptized! He played in the NBA for the trailblazers when he was younger. He's played ball with Dr. J, and he's such a cool dude. He got hit by a car a few months ago, so he's on crutches now because his knee is messed up. We taught him the restoration and he was really excited about the idea of a prophet on the earth today. From there we did apartment checks for most of the day. When we finished apartment checks the APs texted us asking if one of us could go to their apartment because Elder Salyer was feeling sick and they had appointments they needed to go to. We cast lots and the lot fell upon me, so I went to the AP's apartment and studied while Elder Salyer slept. It was actually really nice, I found a lot of scriptures that I think might help our investigator who's blind. 

Friday we had zone conference for most of the day. We talked about more effective planning and how to use Facebook effectively to further the work. The rest of the day we did a lot of finding and contacting. We talked to a guy with a sweet beard who grew up in the church but decided it wasn't really for him. He was pretty close minded, but his wife seemed more open to the message, so we'll see. Near the end of the day we found a gigantic spider that was spinning a web that was probably 4-5 feet in diameter. Elder Mills wanted to catch it and take it with us because he believes in chaos and discomfort. I don't know why you'd want to be closer to that thing than you have to, spiders are the worst. 

Saturday we watched conference, which was fantastic. I think my favorite talks from Saturday were Elder Pingree and Elder Holland. After conference we went over and taught the drunk guy from last week the restoration. He was totally ready for us, he cleaned the apartment, didn't drink any alchohol, and had chairs set up for us. When we first met him I thought he just wanted to bash on the church, but he really wants to learn about the church. We taught him about the restoration and answered a bunch of questions he had. The coolest part came at the end of the lesson though, Elder Mills bookmarked a chapter in the Book of Mormon and invited him to read a chapter, but he was like, "I think I'd prefer to just start from the beginning and read the whole thing if that's okay." And we were like, "Yeah, that's very okay, do that." It was so cool, the Lord really does lead us to people who He has prepared.

Sunday was so great, there were so many awesome talks, I can't even pick a favorite. We watched the first session in the church and the second session with a part active family. They were really cool, their youngest daughter wants to serve a mission. After the afternoon session we ate dinner with some other members and discussed their family mission plan. Then we visited a Samoan family we met last week and taught them the restoration  lesson. The father asked us what we all thought of the Book of Mormon and what it meant to us, so we all shared our testimonies of the Book. It was powerful, and I think it made a big impact on him. He said it sounded like it all was true and he's going to read the Book of Mormon! It was so awesome, the spirit was so strong. 

Today we mostly just did shopping. Elder Baker has a Costco card, so we bought a lot of food. It's been an awesome week. Could you tell me how much is in my bank account? I don't need anything, I just want to keep an eye on how much is in there. 

First week in CA

It's been like, high 60s low 70s the whole time I've been here so ha. 😉 Prmary programs are the best. The apartment is nice. They have me in a tri-companionship being trained by two zone leaders, so it's a little small, particularly at dinner time when we're all trying to use the kitchen. It's good though, there's even a bunch of exercise equipment that Elder Mills picked up from people in the ward who were getting rid of them. My companions are Elder Mills and Elder Baker. I'll send a picture, but Elder Mills is the big guy with bright red hair and Elder Baker is the shorter one with the light brown hair. I'm the one in the middle, just in case you've forgotten what I look like. 😉 Elder Mills has been in this ward for the past four or five transfers, so he knows the area really well. He's pretty crazy, but when he teaches it's really powerful, he's cool. Then there's Elder Baker, he irritates Elder Mills a bit, but I think he's really funny. Plus he was in the Spanish mission for his first thirteen months, so he's fluent in Spanish. It's really nice to have him, we can talk to everybody we see. They're both great, it's going to be a good two transfers. The ward is super nice, and they feed us quite a bit, it was like three days into my mission before I had to actually make my own meal. 

Last week at MTC

Sunday we heard from a guy named Chad Lewis, he played football at BYU and then in the NFL. It was really cool, he talked about his mission and the importance of working hard. 

Monday we picked up a new investigator named Anna. She's from Russia and she's learning English at BYU, so she has a really cool accent. She said she learned English with some missionaries back in Russia and she wanted to learn more. After we finished talking to Anna we had about ten minutes to eat lunch before we had to go teach a lesson to Linda, which went well. 

Tuesday we taught Anna. She asked a lot of questions that really made us have to think. We ended up writing quite a few of her questions down so we could look into them and answer them later. Then in the evening we had a devotional where we heard from President Kearon of the seventy. He talked about dealing with rough days on the mission. We all go through hard times whether we like it or not, so we might as well make the decision to be positive and happy anyways. 

I didn't sleep well Tuesday night, so I was really tired all day Wednesday and I don't remember very much of what happened. Sooo yeah.

Thursday we went to an infield orientation about how to work with members. It basically was a two hour presentation telling us to follow the rules and work hard so members trust us enough to help out and refer their friends. It probably would've been more useful, but the person they paired me up with to do roll plays with really didn't want to be there, so he was pretty impossible to work with. It's alright though, I felt like I learned a little from it. After the infield orientation the sisters showed us a song they wrote about our district. It was to the tune of Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer, and it was pretty funny. For our afternoon class Brother Oniki helped us work on tailoring the lessons to be more applicable to our investigators needs. Then at night we were back in our room when we heard a knock at the door. We opened it up and one of the other districts in our building started piling in our room and singing Jingle Bells. They went all out, some had bells and others had Santa hats, it was really funny. I think that's the most I've experienced the spirit of Christmas in the middle of September before. 

In our class with Brother Oniki on Friday he taught us how to extend a baptism invitation in the first lesson with someone without it being weird or awkward, it was good. Then we had our last lesson with Anna. We usually teach lessons outside, but it was raining super hard, so after we found her we had to wander around the nearby building a bit until we found an empty classroom we could teach her in. We taught her about the plan of salvation and bore our testimonies, then we said our farewells and encouraged her to keep reading and praying and trying to learn for herself that the Book of Mormon is true. As we were walking away she told us that we'd helped her more than any other missionaries she'd met so far. That was a huge testimony builder for me because I had thought that our lessons with Anna hadn't been going very well at all even though I'd been trying to do my best to teach by the spirit, but once she said that I realized that the things we say under the influence of the spirit make a bigger impact on people than we may think that they do at the time. It's important to remember that I'm not the real teacher out here, the spirit is. 

Today we did laundry and Elder Hart got mad at the MTC barber. We missed our appointment because our morning trip to the temple took longer than we thought it would, and Elder Hart was super offended that the barber had a totally booked schedule and wouldn't let him in. The barber was being perfectly reasonable and even found him an appointment for Monday, I'm not sure why it made Elder Hart so mad. Now we're sitting outside and writing emails to people so Elder Hart and Elder Schell can try to listen to the announcer for the BYU football game. 

I'm going to miss my district, but I'm definitely excited to leave and start my mission for real. I love you all, I'll be keeping you in my prayers!!

-Elder Clark

MTC week 2

It turned out I actually needed the tetanus shot too, so I got both of those. That's a bummer about the fall league, but I figured with the high schools doing a season in the fall there'd be less of them doing it, so I'm not surprised. I know you already got me a fair amount of socks, but is there any chance you could send me some lighter ones? The thick ones I have combined with my not too breathable shoes are cooking my feet.

On Monday we did some service in the morning. It wasn't very hard, we just took out trash and vacuumed and stuff, but it was a nice way to start out the day. On the way to our morning class some of the Elders convinced the sisters that it was our district leader's birthday. It was actually the last Monday, but we all wished him happy birthday and played along, and it was kind of funny. Then the sisters got him a present, and that made us all feel pretty bad. So at dinner everyone was trying to decide who should tell them it wasn't actually his birthday and how to do it until I just turned to the sisters and told them. Fortunately they weren't mad, they just thought it was funny too. That was also the day we found our investigators, so we did spiritual things too. 

Also an Elder that was leaving was getting rid of some ties, so I got five or six free ties. All but two of them looked pretty ugly, but hey, free ties.

On Tuesday we got to hear a talk from Elder Oaks. Our district sat like, three rows from the front, so that was pretty sweet. He took a lot of stuff straight out of the preach my gospel book, which kind of testified to me that we already have all the stuff we need right at our fingertips and all we have to do is use it.

On Wednesday we learned how to use the online teaching center, which is where the chat box on mormon.org gets sent to. People talk to real investigators and get real baptisms in there, so it's a pretty sweet experience. Well, sometimes it is anyway. The only chat Elder Hart and I got on Wednesday was someone with the screen name Sam Sung asking us if we knew a scientific equation that proves that God exists. We bore our testimony to him and told him if he really wants to know if God exists he should ask God himself. It pretty clearly was just someone trying to troll us, but it was kind of funny. In our afternoon class our teacher taught us about the power the Book of Mormon has to convert people. He told us about an investigator from his mission named Debbie. Debbie had been praying to find the true church for a while when they met her, so she was totally ready to do the things they told her she should do. She read the whole Book of Mormon in two weeks, and he said most of the time she pretty well taught the lesson for them. It was really cool to hear about her. We also put together a goodie bag and apologized to the sisters for tricking them into thinking it was Elder Nielsen's birthday, and we gave it to them in class Wednesday.

Thursday I extended my first baptism invitation. It was terrifying, even though the spirit was totally prompting me to say it, I was so nervous that it took two or three tries to get the words out. But, she said if she gets an answer when shole e prayed that night she'd do it, so the spirit knows what it's doing. Elder Hart was saying the whole walk to class that I was crazy for saying that so soon and I need to slow down, but then when we got to class and told everyone about it Brother Bennett, one of our teachers, asked who else had invited one of their investigators to be baptized. Nobody else raised their hand, and he chastised us pretty severely. He said we should be bringing it up in the first or second meeting and not wait until later and spring it on them all of the sudden in a later lesson.

On Friday we met with both our investigators. The investigator I invited to get baptized said she'd do it, and we committed the other one to reading the Book of Mormon. Both lessons went really well, it was great. 

Today we went to the temple. We were going to do endowments, but this woman came up to us with a bunch of family names and asked if we could do initiatives for them, so we did that today. Now I'm in the laundry room listening to someone play the ukulele and poorly sing a song from Moana.

Elder Hart is hard to talk to when he's convinced he's right. He's not very good at listening, he just wants to talk and talk and talk until everyone agrees with him. It's a little tiresome, but it's okay. He cares a lot about helping everybody feel happy and welcome and I love him to death. 

Anyways, I think that's pretty well it, I love you guys! 

Calvin Clark MTC

Hi mom, the first few days have been really good. It's been hard work, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It's been super spiritual and quite a bit of fun too. On the first day we had a really cool devotional, the three members of the MTC presidency and their wives spoke to us and welcomed us to the MTC. Then we sang Bring the World His Truth I think? I have trouble remembering what it's  called, but anyways they changed the words from "we will be the Lord's missionaries" to "we are now the Lord's missionaries." It was a really cool moment to just realize that I'm here and I'm a missionary now. The spirit was super strong. After that we met our zone leaders. They seemed pretty craz better y, but they've been here a while and they're only here until Monday, so I'm pretty sure they're really itching to get out into the field. My companion's name is Elder Hart. We get along really well. He's really social and talkative, which is pretty nice most of the time. He kind of didn't give me much room to talk in our first meeting with our investigator, but we talked about it and our next lesson was better. It's hard to know the right things to say, but I have faith that it'll get better with practice. I really like my district, they're all really cool people. They do make me miss my frisbee friends a bit, but I like them all, I really can't complain. I feel like I'm getting a lot better at loving people like Christ did. There was one devotional where we listened to recordings from some investigators talking about themselves so we could practice making inferences about people from things that they tell us. Even though they were just recordings I felt an overwhelming love for them and just wanted to help however I could. It was really neat. Today in the morning we got to go to the temple and it was beautiful.  I think that's pretty well it. I'm having trouble figuring out a good way to make the group email work, this email app is weird, but I wanted to at least get one to you.

I love you guys! 

-Elder Clark

 

Oh, and I also wanted to tell dad that I found out that Elder Hart's dad also served in Japan. So that's cool.

New calling

Sorry this has taken so long. For a few weeks now Britney has had her new call. She is now a Young chruch service missionary. She is working at the family History Center and working on extraction and some things for LDS.org. she is enjoying her time and they are loving having someone young to help. She is attending the singles ward and attending an institute class when she can.  It's nice having her home and seeing her work so hard to fill her days with service.

Major Transfer

Note from mom, Britney has been struggling a bit with the prosolighting part of her mission. She loves the service but has a hard time teaching. Because of that and her wrist still giving her trouble and After much prayer she is switching to a service mission. She came home honorably Thursday the 16th and will surve in cash valley for the reminder of her mission.

Britney's last letter,

I'm doing good.  I'm still not entirely sure what the next faze of my mission is going to be like.  I was able to talk to some of the service missionaries in Salt Lake and there's a lot more things I can do than what's just on the website.  One the missionaries I talked to is beta testing the new gospel library app.  It also sounds like I'll have someone to do companion study with over the phone.  If that doesn't work President Foote told me to use Calvin so he can get some pre-field experience.    Not entirely sure if I keep the email.  I'll have to ask. 

I don't remember if I told you, but last Monday was sister's p-day.  That's where all the sisters in the zone and do something fun.  We played board games and watched 17 miracles.  

We also had the mission tour, witch is where one of the general athouraty comes and talkes to all the missionarys.  We had  Elder Maynes.  It was cool.  He talked a lot about the plan of salvation.  

Other than that things have been as normal as missionary live gets. 

Love you

Super bowl

Transfers are on the fifteenth.  They haven't told us who's moving and who's staying yet.  

I got my brace off  this week!!!  It's really nice to be able to use both hands again.  Plus I'm a little bit ambidextrous now. 

Everyone went crazy over the Superbowl.  We got a call and a reminder text to 1. not watch the game  2. not go tracting during the game  3.  Not drop in on members that are watching the game.  We spent the evening studying  and setting up our new map. 

We went on exchanges with the Peachtree Sisters this week.  Someone at the farmers market was selling tomatoes cheep so we spent most of the morning helping some of the members can tomatoes.  It was a lot of fun.  

Changes

On Wednesday we had a world wide missionary broadcast that changed our schedule.  We now have an extra half hour to get ready in the morning and we can study at any time during the day; witch is really nice when people want to meet with us early in the day and we have nothing to do at night.  We also plan in the mornings now so when we get home we can just go strait to bed if we want to.  We also have less stuff to do in the morning on p-days so we can start 2 hours earlier than we use to.  It's really nice.  

A lot of people have asked me what kind of food we get a lot as missionaries.  We get a large variety of food, but people will all decide to feed us the same thing and then we wont see it again for a long time.  Like this week we had pizza three days in a row but I can't remember when the last time we had pizza before that.  Last weeks theme was soup.  Its like people coordinate on feeding us the the same thing until we're sick of it then they'll switch to something else.  

Snow Days

This week we had freezing rain and all are appointments canceled because of the threat of snow.  We made the mistake of parking in the shade so we had to wait a few hours for the doors to thaw out enough for us to get the doors open.  Probably a good thing, it gave the black ice on the rode time to melt.  We found a puzzle in the apartment so we worked on that, cleaned the apartment, and called people.  Once we were able to pry some of the doors open we went to see a few people that we haven't been able to see in a while.  More people were home than usual.  We heard a lot of stories about "Snowmageddon."   About two years ago Georga got two inches of snow.  Everyone panicked and stopped driving. Cars were left abandoned on the interstate.  Now everyone has blankets and snacks in there car in case that ever happens again.  Not something you see in Utah.  
I'm doing good.  I'm glad we got me that coat while I was still in Utah.  Most people here consider a jacket a coat, witch is good most of the year but right now its nice to have something that is actually made for freezing weather.  I'm also realizing the importance of making sure any tights I get are fleece linened.

Christmas

I've been doing good.  We finally got me in to see a doctor about my wrist.  They got me in a better brace and told me to stay off it for a while.  Other than that not much happened sense Sunday.  In reply to Calvin's email,  this is one of the few times we're kind of glad that pday got moved.  Mondays email would have been "Hi Mom.  Since we last talked I had lemon poppy seed bread for breakfast."
The book of mormon you hilighted is really cool.  My companion thought they were stickers. She was pretty impressed when I told her you drew them.  
One of the members here gave all the missionaries different kinds of bread for Christmas.  if she hadn't I probably would have been eating stocking suffers and Christmas cookies.

It's always weird to buy eggs when you have chickens.  I had to get used to buying eggs when I came out.  Well I need to get going. Love y'all

New years

So far this week has been pretty good. My hand is starting to feel a little better now. I have a doctors appointment today to see how it's doing.  Could you email me Dad's birthday?   Apparently I need it for the insurance and I have no idea how old he is.  A lot of people this week have asked me what the weirdest thing I've eaten on a mission is.  So far it would have to be carrot cake that didn't cook all the way so our host threw it in a blender and served it with a spoon.  The worst tasting thing would have to be candied bacon that was "a little over done".  It was charcoal.  The grossest thing I put in my mouth was a sandwich that I didn't realize was moldy until I had taken a bite.  Apparently they had been running behind schedule so they had their son make sandwiches, because you can't mess up sandwiches.  Dinner got revised to potato salad and ice cream. I didn't get sick so guess I can't really complain. 

Yesterday we helped a less active member make jewelry.  It was a lot of fun.  I learned how to dry flowers and keep there colors. You just stick them in the microwave for about 30 sec between paper towels and normal paper with something heavy on top to press them flat.   She also just got a rock tumbler and has been asking me how to use it. When then got out to our car to realize that someone had parked their truck in front of it and we couldn't get out. So we had some unexpected tracting in the rain for half an hour.