Power

I got the glasses and the easter package, thanks so much. The other glasses worked, but one of the lenses really wants to fall out and they don't have that magical coating that makes them easier to clean like the Shopko ones, so it's nice to have these ones. I also appreciate the soup, they don't sell that brand in any of the stores I've been to down here, so I'm looking forward to making it. I don't know if I've already said this or not, but Lee's is actually one of the things I've missed the most out here. Everything over here is just so expensive and then it's not even as good as the Lee's stuff. It's all good though, they give us plenty of food money and the ward feeds us dinner almost every night. Sorry I forgot to wish you a happy birthday Britney, I did wear a green tie and I did think of you. That's kind of funny that they had a ward pancake breakfast on your birthday, because my ward out here had a ward pancake breakfast on my birthday too. I guess we're just cool enough that the church wants to throw our parties for us. 😉 That's pretty cool that they got to make paper in art class, I don't think we ever did anything that unique in my art classes. It sounds like it would be fun.

I'm guessing you already figured this out, but my P-day got moved to today so that we could go to the temple! It was really nice, it felt like I hadn't gone in forever. The Newport Beach temple is really pretty, it has some super cool paintings and a really spectacular mural. I'm so grateful that I'm in a mission that has the opportunity to visit the temple. 😊  

So lots has happened since it's been about a week and a half, so I'm just going to throw up a few events and not worry about transitions or anything.

We met a guy who moved here from Korea and he said we could send Korean missionaries over to talk to his family. Normally that wouldn't be a very notable event, but the guy's name was pretty great. You know how sometimes people here in America name their kids a word in a different language that just means peace or strength or something like that? Well apparently they do that in Korea too but with English words, becuase this guy's name was power.

We saw some high school kids standing around a U-Haul. We asked if they needed help unloading and they said yes, but not until later because their mom was filling out paperwork and they didn't have the apartment key yet. We came back later, but no one was by the U-Haul and we didn't know their phone number or which apartment it was, so we just left and did missionary things. They then apparently called the sister missionaries in the ward they moved from and told them that they needed help moving furniture and two missionaries had offered to help but they didn't know how to contact us. They said one of us had red hair and glasses, and since I'm the only redhead in the entire zone they had no trouble figuring out who it was, so go me for being unique. 😉

Wednesday was 3/14, so of course we made pie. I made a key lemon pie and Elder Durtschi made an Oreo pie. It's only a week later and we've eaten all but one slice. And when I say we, I mean Elder Durtschi had about three pieces and I ate the rest, so I'm probably going to need to start working a little more dilligently in my morning workouts. 

I knocked on a door, and a man came out in a bathrobe and chastized me for ruining the varnish on his door. I really didn't know how to respond, but he closed the door before I had the chance to anyways, so it's all good I guess.

We met someone who downloaded gospel library on his own because he's really been wanting to read the scriptures but couldn't find the copy he'd been given by the missionaries forever ago! He was feeling sick the day we met him, but he said he definitely wanted to talk with us some other time. 

Someone had us read a chapter out of the Bible that he thought proved that our church isn't true, and that it would really make us think about what we believe as true. I turned to the chapter in personal study the next day, and it's actually one of the chapters that Preach my Gospel cites to support our doctrine on the priesthood. I'm not totally sure how he wanted me to interpret it, but it was cool to read about the priesthood either way.

We met someone who's cool, but she might be YSA. It's hard to tell, because we're supposed to pass people who are 18-30 to them, but since it's rude to ask people how old they are you have to kind of just guess.

The Zone leaders did an exchange with us on Monday since our P-day is on Wednesday, so I got to go to FHE in the YSA ward again! It was fun to see some of the people again even if we had to leave a little early to take my stuff back to our area. 

And last but certainly not least, we found a family to teach!! It was super cool, I set a personal goal in the last place we went to for the night that I would give away all of the materials I brought out with me before I went in. I was able to give away all of my pamphlets and was left with a Book of Mormon and a pass-along card. I was thinking about how I would get someone to take a Book of Mormon even though it was 8:30 and we were having trouble even getting people to talk to us, so I said a little prayer and decided that if Heavenly Father would put someone in my path I would do everything I could to give them the Book of Mormon. Then, three doors later someone opened up and when we asked if we could share a short message with him he told us his family was just finishing up dinner and they'd love to have us come in and teach them! We shared the church's Easter video from last year then taught them about the Book of Mormon and gave them the copy. We asked if we could come back later and teach them more about the book and they said they'd love that! It's so cool, they're such and awesome family, I'm really excited to work with them. 😊

Oh, and update on my companion and I. This week has been a lot better than last week. There was a segment in zone conference about finding joy in the work, and someone said something that helped me realize that my own attitude was a lot of the problem. I'm still praying for patience and asking God to help me love him every day, and he's still doing all the same things that bother me, but I'm responding to it better and it isn't bothering me as much. Hopefully it keeps getting better, but even if it doesn't I'm still happy I'm a missionary and I'm having these great experiences. 

Wow, that's super long. Hopefully you are able to find the time to read it all. I love you guys!

-Elder Clark