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.