Volleyball a favorite..he really has changed

Hello!

 So our thanksgiving was good. We went over to our ward mission leaders home.  He had all his kids there and a couple family friends, So there was about 20 of us.  My companion and I got to sit in the 30 and under table.  Your guys thanksgiving sounded good.  I wish I could have played on the obstacle course. But we did to play basketball and volleyball with the two zones in the morning.  Volleyball was surprisengly my favorite. 

  We had a pretty good.  We taught 20 lessons for the first time since I have been in Jovita Creek.  Teaching 20 lessons is one of the missions stanards of excellence.  We also found some good new investigators.  We found this mexican lady who is in her 40's, she said she would read the book of mormon.  But unforunately she is going out of town till the 17th.  While tracting we knocked on this door.  And this women and guy who were in there late 20's answered the door.  The women was actually raised  mormon she went to seminary and everything.  But she said "the church wasnt for her" which was sad, mostly because when she said it, I could tell that she didnt fully believe what she was saying.  We left a book a mormon because she wanted one for when she takes care of her mom there.  I kinda want to go back in a couple of weeks and just talk with her again. 

  This weekend there is a big nativity event going on at the stakecent.  We have been inviting everyone we talk to that doesnt say no thanks and slams the door.  So hopefully there is a big turn out.  Our ward is actually not having church this sunday, because of the event.  I think we will have to go to a different ward  and building. 

  But that is about all that is going on right now.  We email at the library, we all have library cards.   I will probably send a letter.  Did you get my last letter about the shirts? I think something weird is happening with my mail. But have a good day! I love and miss you lots. 

I cant believe it is getting close to christmas. 

 

Love, Elder Clark

Electing not to punt...

Hello,

  So this week was a pretty good week.  We got a car!  That was pretty exciting.  We got it Tuesday night.  My companion had called the Zone leaders tuesday during the day, to check on a referral that they gave us  and also to ask if we were getting a car. Elder Park said that we were not getting a car.  But Tuesday night they came over and dropped of the car.  My companion was pretty happy about that.  But the car has helped us we have been able to visit a lot more people.

  This week we found a lot of potential investigators and two new investigators.  Which is pretty good.  And we are going to start teaching again this young women whose dad is getting more active.  She has gone to church the past several weeks,  So hopefully we can put her on date for baptism sometime in december,  She is are only proggressing investigator at this time, but their are a couple other investigators who we are going to try and put on date for december as well. 

  We met with Shibley, the hawaiin lady, on Thursday.  My companion said the opening prayer and after the prayer her dog jumped on my lap.  I was like ok as long as you dont go crazy I'm ok with it.  After a couple of seconds I started to feel something wet....it peed on me.  So that was a really great experience, I had to excercise a lot of patience  to not punt the dog off my lap.  I did push it off though, but I didnt say anything because I didnt want her to feel bad. So I have to dry clean that suit today.  \

  Also there were a ton of changes in the zone.  The zone leaders moved to Redondo.  Which I know Elder Park was happy about.  I could tell that when we were in federal way together he kinda missed redondo.  Redondo has a lot of marshalese! But the Assistants actually moved to federal way, my old ward.  So that was kinda cool. 

  Oh and Sister Webster from the Dash Point ward which is in my stake called me Saturday night.  I guess she is really good friends with Karen, and knows Dad.  I havent called her back yet.  The last two days have been really busy.  She wants us to come over for dinner but I dont know if that will happen.  Were suppose to stay in our areas and only have dinner on sat, sun, and mondays.  But I will call her today and talk with her, and try to explain kindly that I cant come to dinner. 

  And the reason we were busy Saturday was that we had a meeting in Bellevue with the whole mission.  And when I say meeting, I mean we got to hear from Elder Dalin H. Oaks, his wife, and Elder Rasband.  Not big deal right?  I got to shake his hand as well.  It was pretty cool! I guessed I probably could of mentioned in my previous emails that this was happening.  He addressed our whole mission for about an hour. He didnt really talk too much about the media campaign that is happening in our mission, which was kind of surprising.  I'll write a letter about what he talked about.  He has a really good sense of humor!  I imagine most of the apostles do, but you just imagine them being serious most of the time.  But there were times when the whole chapel was laughing, he was serious though too.  It was a pretty special experience!

  Well that is about it.  We are going over to our ward mission leaders house for thanksgiving.  We have also been welcomed by the Longs.  We will probably eat leftovers with the Longs for about two or three days.  Yesterday at ward council, they talked about our housing situation.  And the ward is brainstorming available housing for the missionaries.  Because the Longs are moving to utah this summer they need to get the house ready to be sold.  I dont know exactly when we will get kicked out of the Longs house but probably within a transfer or two.  That will be kinda sad if I end up staying in Jovita Creek that long. 

   It sounds like a pretty goood week.  I hope Dad had a good time in orlando.  From what mom says Wesley had a couple of good basketball games.  However Wes, mom says your defense is mediocre. Whats up with that? Your not Jimmer yet, you cant take defense off! Anyway have a good thanksgiving!  I think we are having a zone or mission activity on thanksgiving morning and I think its basketball. So I'm pretty excited about that.  We might play some basketball today which would be fun.  My companion has been sick for the last week. Im amazed I'm not sick yet.  I think we might still play though.  I love you!

Elder Clark

Did he really say hold up on the treats...?

Hey!
  So I didn't get transferred, which wasn't too surprising I was pretty sure I was going to stay here,  My companion didn't get transferred either.  There was a lot of transfers in our zone.  So it will be interesting to see the final product of the zone at zone meeting tomorrow.  We will also not be getting the car that was rumored to be coming into the zone this transfer.  I don't really care too much.  We have a pretty small area.  While riding in the rain and cold isn't too fun it could be worse. 
  This last week there were a few bright spots but if you take out those it was a long week.  Andrea Flore's baptism was on Wednesday everything went good for that,  I confirmed her on sunday.  The rest of her family wasn't able to come to church.  Jesus (the father) only day off is on Sunday. So he wants to get all the work done around the house done on Sunday.  We went over there sunday night and taught a lesson on the importance of church.  We also told Elivia to ask Jesus on saturday what work needs to be done, and we told her we would come over and do service on saturday or monday so that they could come to church on Sunday,  But I think Jesus is coming around.  He came in and talked with us on Sunday night and we told him we would be willing to do service if that meant the family could come to church.  He said ok.  And Elvia (the mom) said she caught him reading "the mormon book" one night.  Hopefully his heart will continue to soften and he will desire to hear the lessons and be baptised like the rest of his family.  Andrea has a 1 year old son (I attached a picture).  I have these pictures that fit into my scriptures of Jesus, the prophet, quorem of the 12, a person getting baptised, and a diagram of the plan of salvation.  I give him the pictures when we come over, he likes to play with them and taught him who Jesus was.  I hold up the picture and he can now say Jesus. So that is pretty fun. 
   But other than the baptism is was kinda  a hard week.  We werent able to meet with a lot of our investigators, and everyone that we tracted into really did not want to talk with us.  Hopefully this week will be better.  Were inviting everyone to this nativity that is at the stakecenter Dec 2,3,4.  I guess it is a pretty big event.  They have like nativity scenes from all over the world, even an igloo one.  So were handing out invitations to that, hopefully a lot of non members come. 
  Last night we had dinner with a member.  We had salmon, it was really good.  We might be moving out of the Long's house pretty soon, because they are trying to get ready to move to Utah this summer.  We dont know when that will be though.  I did get the package, and enjoyed that.  Maybe a break in the snacks in the package.  Not that I dont like them. But with the brownies, candy, Sis Long's desserts, and the ice cream that I buy my pants are getting tightier.  Sister Long made carrot cake this weekend. It was so good. 
  Oh, I have been thinking about what I want for Christmas. I cant believe it's only six weeks away.  But anyway, I dont really want anything. Maybe some ties and pj's for tradition sake.  Thats all I could really think of.  I dont really have too many needs or wants right now. 
  Well  Dad try to have a good time in Orlando, shouldn't be too hard though.  I hope everyone else has a good week! I think I am going to take a big nap today for preparation day.  Last monday we played basketball for like three hours.  My body was not very happy about that that the following morning. 

Love, Elder Clark

Warning! Don't try this at home!

Hello!

  It was good to hear from you guys! This week was a pretty good week.  We are still trying to build our teaching pool.  We started teaching this hawaiin women named Shabley.  She is a good investigator but we are having trouble getting her to progress.  She hasnt read the book of mormon.  Her sister and her best friend have been baptised but she won't really commit yet. And she won't pray out loud. Everytime I invite her to say the closing prayer she refuses.  The first lesson we tried to get her to say the closing praying for about 7 minutes.  She says she has never said a prayer out loud in her life.  So we still need to work on that.  We had a pretty crazy zone conference.  President Larkin showed us an interview that Anderson Cooper conducted, he interviewed Pastor Robert Jefferies.  It was pretty weird to see something from the world, but it was cool to see that the world is coming to the defense of the church. 

  Andrea Flores was not baptised this week.  We have set the date for this Wednesday and it should be pretty solid.  Elder Tingey will be baptising her and I will do the confirmation next sunday.  We have been doing alot of tracking since we dont have a large teaching pool.  Hopefully we get a referral soon.  I havent got a referral since being in Jovita Creek.  In federal way we got like two or three every week.  The mission has seen a lot of miracles from the mormon.org campaign.  President Larkin had a conference with some of the apostles and the apostles said they are expecting convert baptisms to double where the advertisment campaign is going on.  So that was the main message in the last zone conference.  Zone conference was prettty fun.  We got to play this putting game and I was one the people who got to go up and putt . 

  Everything is going pretty good.  Still a little bit of a struggle with my compaign but everyday seems to be different.  The weather hasnt been too bad the last couple of days. I really enjoyed the packages and the talks and music.  That is good that tanner won this past weekend.  His hair looks really long.  Oh, and the rumor is that a car is coming into the federal way zone at transfers next week.  Jovita Creek might get a car! but i'm not getting my hopes up.  I dont mind riding bike too much. 

  I gave my self a hair cut last monday.  That was pretty interesting.  I cut it a little shorter than I wanted too, but it looks pretty good. Now I dont need to get a haircut for like two transfers..I'm happy about that. 

  This week is the last week of the transfer.  I have a feeling I will be staying in Jovita Creek a little longer.  My companion thinks he will probably be transferred.  Last night we set a zone goal for 24 baptisms next month.  Which would be the highest the zone has ever baptised and the highest any zone in the mission has baptised ever.  I dont know why I am so blessed to be in Federal Way at the start of my mission. 

  Anyway have a good week! I really appreciate the support and love, it helps a lot.  I love you!

 

   Love, Elder Clark