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