ej et abea

 This is at Jana's baptism.  She was so nervous.  As we were walking to the font, we were leading the way. I asked "ej et abea?" Which means are you ok? And she just said "nervous" and laughed. It was funny.  The other sister in the picture is her cousin Cherrilynn who Jana lives with.  Her and her husband were baptised 4 years ago.  They are active and have 5 kids.  They're great. 

Miracles

Dear Family,

  This week was really good.  Christmas was great, it was awesome to be able to talk with you.  I felt we could only scratch the surface of all the things to talk about, but it was good.  We had a really good week. Many miracles happened, and most of them can be attributed to the Christmas season. We found a part member family that I have gone to a few times, and each time got a negative response.But after an appointment fell through, we were prompted by the spirit to visit the family. The mom opened the door and immediately smiled and said "Hi Elders". There was this look of relieve and joy in her expression.  We will be seeing them on Tuesday. Her two daughters are 10 and 11 and she wants them to be baptised.

  Our sacrament was packed.  We had about 15 marshalese there. And we also found Erica this last week, I have met her before. She is Samoan and a member. She came to church and after she asked for a ride next and said it was really nice to be in the Lord's house again. 

  It's the last week of the transfer.  I'm about 99.6% sure I will be staying. We played raquet ball this morning, with a brother in our ward. It was really fun.  We are also playing basketball with some members and were bringing some marshalese with us to play, so it will be fun. 

  Well have a wonderful week!

 

Love, Elder Clark

Yokwe Bomilay

Yokwe Bomilay (Hello Family),

  We had an awesome week. So many miracles.  Marshalese networking....complete.  We'll be baptising Jonah in two weeks.  She is marshalese and is living with her cousin who has an active family.  She is great, we found her this week. Took her on a church tour and a baptism and she came to church.  Networking with the Marshalese is going really good.  You know that when all the families know your name and they know when you visit the marshalese families in the area cause they all talk about it.  We are hoping to start teaching 4 or 5 more marshalese this week.  My marshalese is getting really good.  Hopefully in a month or so I can teach half the lesson in Marshalese. 

  We put 5 people on date for baptism in December. It was a good week for that. Also at church this Sunday, Martin just came to church on his own. He was sitting on the couch in the foyer at 11 o clock waiting for church to start.  We will start teaching him and his Sister on wednesday.  They are from Nigeria. It's going to be a miraculous month.

  Hope everyone has a great week!

 

Love, Elder Clark

Thanksgiving times 2

Dear Family,

  Well it seems like a great week with the State Championship, sounded like so much fun! We had a pretty good week here in Federal Way. Jay's baptism was great.  Greg (A recent of convert of a couple months) baptised him. He has a goal to do another baptism before the end of the year. He has already done 4.  Also one of our investigators is progressing very well. Her name is Joy, she is from Kosrie. She came to church and loved it. We talked about how her prayers were going, and she said good and that baptism could be very soon.  We are meeting with her tonight, possibly moving her baptism up to the 8th of December. 

  Transfer news is that Elder Brimhall got transfered.  Not very far though. They took Sis Hirano and Choi out of Lakota Creek and replaced them with Elder Brimhall and his companion.  So there are now 4 elders in the ward.  And this transfer, I am training. I am pretty excited about it.  My companion is Elder Savage and he is from the bay area in California.

  We possibly could be having a baptism this weekend, if we can help Joe and Julie get there marriage license today.  We had a very good thanksgiving. We ate so much food. We ate dinner around 4 o clock with members, then from 5:30 to 7 we tracted. At 7 we went to this marshalese family and there were over 60 people there and they were just starting dinner.  Of course, they brought us this huge plate of food. I thought I was going to go into a food coma.  Also some exciting news.  Sylbia, Scott Grays wife was baptised last weekend. So now most of the family has been baptised except for one or two of the sons. 

 

Love, Elder Clark

You Remember Me?

Dear Family,

  This was a great week!  On Sunday it was Stake Conference.  And …I got to see the Grays! It was awesome. The whole family was there.  And the Dad, Scott Gray was ordained an Elder yesterday as well.  It was great! I got to see my best friend Laurieann. I went and sat next to her, and she was like “you remember me?” All the kids look so grown up, it was crazy. 

  Our investigator has quit smoking for two weeks now, thanks to the hard candy werthers original.  We gave him 3 bags in the last two weeks.  He will be baptized this Saturday. We are making some great head way, with the marshalese in our area.  We visited the Candles, a marshalese family in our ward.  Sis Candle is the sweetest lady, she is going through breast cancer right now and she just finished kemo.  After we shared a chivic kaduk (quick lesson), she asked us to teach her nephew who is in the 8^th grade. 3 or 4 days ago he moved here from the islands. So we will hopefully baptize him this Sunday after church.   Unfortunately our investigators girlfriend who is a member moved their marriage back to the first week in December.  So as of now he will not be getting baptized this weekend.  But we will still want to talk with Julie and try and get it pushed back up to November. 

  I can’t believe it is already December, it is crazy.  Thanksgiving will be fun; we get to do a zone activity in the morning.  Oh, by the way Sister Webster talked with President Larkin (he came to Stake Conf this weekend) and asked about seeing me and President Larkin said no.  Which I am grateful I didn’t have to do.  In the missionary handbook were suppose to discourage those type of things. 

  Its going to be a busy Holiday season. We have been promised by President Larkin that we can baptize 10 people before the end of year. So we have to get to work!  Transfers are next week.  I am about 99.3% sure I will stay. I think Elder Brimhall will probably get transferred though.  But we will see..

Have fun at State this weekend!

Love, Elder Clark

I'll take choir definitions for 200 Alex

Dear Family,

  Well it was a pretty good week in Lakota Creek.  It is definitely the winter, but I really dont get too cold.  Whenever we are outside, were always running so that keeps us warm.  We had a great Sacrament meeting, 5 of our investigators were there. Unfortunately the one that we were really counting on was not there. He drives trucks and starts at 3 in the morning on Sunday and ends at 11am.  But we'll get him there somehow. We found him this week and had a really powerful church tour with him.  We also found this man from Malouwi (spelling is probably wrong) in Africa. He came to church and has been to church before and is living the commandments, so we will probably baptise him soon. 

  The choir did a musical number for veterans day.  And we have seen the choir practice the past several weeks and the number of male singers were lacking. So we offerered to participate.  We only had the practice on the day we were performing, and I needed like a choir dictionary. I didnt know what half the words the choir director was saying meant. But it ended up being really good.  We sang America the Beautiful. 

  Kelly Gleed is the bishops wife. We ate dinner with them last sunday and they took our picture.  Stake Conf is this week. I am pretty excited about that. I will be  able to hopefully see the Flores family from Jovita Creek and the Gray family in Federal Way.  Bonus to have served in three wards in the same stake is that you know half the stake. 

  I have to thank Grandma for the Armor of God activity from Alma 50.  I have used it several times this past week.  We teach a lot of islander families and their kids are everywhere.  But it helps when their is an activity. Although sometimes they take the bow and arrow part a little too far.  I am trying to crack into the marshalese families that live in our area. But it's tough because their are two big families and the fathers are both pastors for a big marshalese church in Auburn.  It's all about connections/networking and understanding their culture. Once you get in, you'll have the potential to baptise a lot.
  Well good luck this week against Lawrence.  We need revenge from when they beat us in basketball in substate.  Sounds like Dad will have a good week in Orlando.  Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Clark

Day late...r

Dear Family,

  Well we are going to the temple today, which is why I am writing on Tuesday.  We had an ok week this week. I really havent had to much experience with investigators who have heavy addictions. They want to be baptised but are not ready to make the changes neccessary.  So will be giving them some time and let God prepare them some more. 

  One of our investigators will be getting baptised on the 24th.  We have been really bold with him and his girlfriend in our lessons to help them to see how they need to get married and baptised as soon as possible.  His girlfriend is a member and she bore a really heartfelt testimony on Sunday. Then they told us after church that they are going to get married on the 24th and we'll have the baptism the same day.

  Barbra was baptised in May Valley. That was awesome to hear! I found her with one of the priests, and when we found her she was really sad. Her husband of over 50 years had died a couple of weeks before.  I also got a package from Sis Robins this week.  I love the Robins. They are awesome.  Hopefully I will see her at the temple.  She works there on Tuesdays. 

  Exciting news about football.  Hopefully Tanner can keep winning so they can make it to state. Good luck. 

 

Lots of Love, Elder Clark

Investigator is anti-homecoming

Dear Family,

  Well it was a pretty good week.  We didn't find as many new investigators or put as many people that we wanted to on date but some really good things happened.  We had a couple good lessons with Linda and Fred. Linda is working on not smoking so she can be baptized on October 13.  Fred is kind of slowing things down.  He wants to be involved and everything but he doesn't want to change until he stops working grave yard shifts at Boeing.  Because he is not ready to change he wants Linda to wait until the end of the year.  And it doesn't help that Linda is on doctors orders to not go anywhere without Fred being there, because of her seizures.  But were going to get her there this Sunday somehow.

  We also had a good church tour with Jason. He is 18 years old.  He is a little hesistant to make a big committment but he is progressing.  He is really funny.  We were talking about homecoming...its next weekend.  And he was like "well i went sophomore year and ended up spending a fortune to hate my life for a night. So I most likely won't be going this year." 

  So i suppose its confession time. I lost my camera somehow. Like 6 months ago.  But i do have a couple pics from Julie and Donna's baptism.  I will send them today through the mail.  I have just been using my companions camera to send the files.  So its been working out.  I dont need another camera.  

  Well have a great week. Football sounds exciting.

Love, Elder Clark

Dipping sauce makes the highlight reel

Dear Family,
 Another busy week.  It was really good.  We had an exchange with the assistants. One of our investigators is now progressing. She is on date and has quit smoking for the last five days.  She has gone through a lot of health problems and currently she has a brain tumor.  But she really wants to learn more and be baptised.  Theres only one thing about her she TALKS A LOT! I have never met someone who can talk so much and so fast.
 I'll attach a picture. Its a picture of our banner. In preparation for President Larkins climb of mount si. He has obtained a staff and each zone has now attached a banner on the staff.
 Elder Gilbert and I are both getting sort of a cold. Hopefully it passes soon.  Sister Robins made this chocolate smore dipping sauce this past week. It's so good.  She showed us how to make it and it only takes 3 minutes. All you need is 1 bag of chocolate chips, marshmallow cream?, and condensed milk.  We will be making more in the future.
 Sounds like it was a busy week, especially with football.  Thats awesome that tanner and wesley won their football game.  Pretty exciting that Tanner got to go to the KU game.  I did hear about the BYU game.  It was a topic for ward council unfortunately. Brother Robins was pretty happy though, he is a alumnist of Utah.  Sis Robins was just happy that both teams played well and it was close...she's not a very competitive person.
 Fall is coming fast, but from what we hear we should have sunshine for another week or so. People are getting kind of tired of having no rain.  They dont like watering their flowers.  But in two months they will be complaining about the rain, when it rains everyday. Its a funny cycle.
 Thats about all I have..Have a great week!

Love, Elder Clark

Power Month

Dear Family,

 Well we made it through the week as well. We are exhausted! I am still in the same area. Elder Gilbert just got transferred into may valley. We are both zone leaders. 

 Elder Gilbert is awesome, he was zone leader for one transfer in Bellevue South before he got transferred. So he was in-zoned.  He is from orem, utah. Likes sports. So we get along really good!

  Its been a really busy week.  With the beginning of the transfer and this month being sort of "make it or break it" month. When president Lakin first got here, Elder kikuchi challenged the mission to baptize 100 people in one month. Well for two years we have had that goal and the closest we have got was 86, last October.  With september being a month with 5 weekends and baptising 25 people the first weekend this is the month we need to do. So we can build the faith and baptise over a 100 for the rest of the year.  We have had some pretty intense conference calls with him in the past week. 

  Friday was really busy.  We packed way too much in the morning. We had a weekly meeting with the stake president at 8. Then at 9:15 we had a correllation meeting with the district leaders. At 10 we had zone meeting.  But at 9:55 we had an impromptu conf call with president. So zone meeting started 20 minutes late. It was a little awkward having to leave right before it started. But surprisenly everything went good, except for one thing. The stake is doing a "power month" in October.  Where every ward in the stake will be fasting everyday, and the wards will be providing exchanges 5 nights a week.  The stake president has asked us that since the wards are fasting and doing exchanges. He would like to say to the wards that the missionaries are also sacrificing something.  So at zone meeting we wanted to come up as a zone something we could sacrifice to unite our efforts.  We had a couple of ideas, one was to cut our lunch and dinner to half an hour.  We wanted this to be something that we all came up with, and not say, "here this is what were doing, do it."  We told them our idea and asked if they had any ideas of their own.  There were a few comments that made it somewhat contentious. So we quickly comprimised to each area prayfully coming up with something to sacrifice as a companionship.  Everything besides the sacrifice portion went really good. President Larkin showed up at the end and added to the excitement.

  The Robins are doing well.  Yeah, Sis Robins is awesome. I really like her.  Elder Yamashita got transferred to Renton stake and the Skyway ward. He is senior companion.  Which was probably overwhelming for him at first.  He"ll do great in Skyway. Skyway has 4 missionaries.  It's in the lower income part of renton and in the past one of the highest baptising ward in the mission. So i'm excited for him. 

  In our area right now we are focusing on finding.  We have a couple investigators were hoping to get progressing soon, but the rest we are probably going to drop so we can only spend time with those that will progress, which is a big focus of President Larkin right now. 

  Everything is going good. Time is going by even faster. Which I didnt think it could, it's going to be Christmas before I know it. 

  Thats good that Wesley team got a win.  Sounds like they have really improved.  Keep doing awesome wes!

  Thats too bad about the haircut.  I sort of know how it feels, with my somewhat recent uh oh experience during a haircut. 

  Weather is still nice, rain is coming soon though I fear.  Did you hear from Bishop Jarman, I gave him your email.

 

Lot of Love, Elder Clark

May Valley it is

Dear Family,

 

Well it has been a pretty crazy week.  It seemed like a really long..longest week for awhile.  The last week of the transfers are usually like that.  I am staying in May Valley.  And they have actually moved the zone leader area to may valley.  So I am now a Zone Leader.  Thats sort of exciting.  Elder Yamashita got transferred. He will be in the Renton stake in Skyway ward. 

 

Julie and Donna were confirmed on Sunday by Elder Yamashita. His english was awesome.  This week is going to by real fast. We have zone meeting on friday.  And it's already wednesday tomorrow.  As for the confirmations, the work side of things was a little slow..lots of tracting.

 

The last three days, we ate way too much.  After each meal I felt sick.  The Robins fed us the last two day, because no one signed up for Labor day weekend.  School is starting today for kids in the area. 

 

Any update on the CD? It sounds like you have been really busy, so I understand if you havent got to it yet.  Thats unforunate about the warehouse dilemna. Hopefully it all works out ok. 

 

Thats awesome that West won their first game.  Tanner is playing center, I take it.  Any other positions.  When is Wesleys first game? 

 

Well have a great week. Their just wasn't a lot to write about this past week. Hopefully their will be next week.

 

Lots of Love, Elder Clark

Captain I'm an Elder not a plumber

Dear Family,

  The reason we are emailing on tuesday is that we went to the temple today, it was really good.  

  We had a kindof slow week this, just with being able to teach people.  Julie and Donna were baptised on Sunday. It was a great service. I was able to baptise them. It was a little interesting.  Donna is 79 years old. And she didn't quite get the concept of bending her legs and using her hand to plug her nose.  But she was immersed and came out alive.  It was pretty funny. After they were baptised, I was trying to let the font drain.  Usually you just push it to one side and the other side would pop up and it would start to drain. But that wasn't happening. So I was just tried pulling it and it would come up a little and I could feel air. I had to get changed, so I decided to see if that would let it drain.  After the service was over, we went to check if it had drained any, and it hadn't.  We told Sis Robins about it and she decided she would try so I wouldn't have to get wet a second time.  She tried, got all wet, and still couldn't get it. So I had to go and try and figure it out. I ended up just having to unscrew the whole drain.

  But that was about it this week. Nothing real exciting happened. This week is the last week of the transfer.  This transfer was the quickest one so far. I have no idea what is going to happen at transfer. But I am pretty sure either elder yamashita or I will be transferred.  I don't really have a preference at all. 

 I keep on forgetting to answer moms questions.  As to the dentist, there's no time and the mission really doesn't want us doing that kind of stuff.  My teeth will survive.  About school. I will go back to BYUI for at least a semester or two. I need to get my GPA up before I think  about transfering.  Wait on housing. I am trying to correllate with my friend who visited before I left.  He is in Samoa, which makes it hard. It takes like a month for a letter to get there, but I should hear back from him soon.  And the Romney thing. We just say we don't talk about politics.  We are not to engage in those type of conversations so we are either silent and try to tie in our message when they talk about it...or leave as soon as we can.  But not too many have brought it. I imagine that will change come november. 

  I can't believe Wesley has a twitter. That is funny.  When is tanner's first game?Probably coming up in the next couple of weeks or so.  Have an awesome week.  Next email will be on tuesday again. 

 

Love, Elder Clark

Milk before meat or visa versa

Dear Family,

  This week was really good.  We had 5 invs at church.  It was awesome.  Julie and Donna came and they are getting baptised this sunday.  They are really excited.  They came for Sunday school for the first time and guess what the lesson was on? Exaltation. Becoming like God.  Not exactly the best 1st lesson. But what can ya do..they seemed to like it and roll with it. So thats good.  Also Linda and Fred came, which was awesome.  Linda has like every health issue you can have. They really liked it, and said they will be back.  They had to leave after sacrament meeting because linda didn't bring a mask and her immune system is really down due to kemo pills.  But it was a really great Sunday.  We had a high coucilor speak and he brought someone as well and she was a little long and left him 5 minutes. But it was still good. 

  We had interviews with President last week. It went really good.  We didnt really talk about too much.  He just asked how my mission was going? I told him I loved it and its going by too fast.  And he just said "you got plenty of time and stop thinking about that...but I feel the same way." So it was good. But before the interview I thought I would stay in May Valley for a LONG TIME, but now because of some of the things he asked him about elder Yamashita i think I might get transferred soon. But I dont know.. 

  One of our investigators gave us a referral for Marshawn Lynch the Seahawks Rb who lives in our area.  I guess he is having a little trouble with his decisions right now. We haven't contacted him yet but hopefully this week. 

  HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!

  I hope school goes well for everyone. And goodluck wes and tanner in football. What positions will the both of you be playing?

  Have a great week!

Love, Elder Clark

Summer yeah!

Dear Family,

  Well the summer heat is finally starting to hit Seattle.  We have been over 85 for a week or so now. Which feels really good. All the old people on the other hand don't really like it.  In Seattle most of the houses do not have AC, even the new houses they don't put AC in. So it can a little hot in side at times.

  We had a pretty good week.  Julie and Donna came to church again, so they are progressing nicely for the end of August.  A lot of the people we found either dropped us or we dropped the, so we will have to revamp our finding effort.  We found a bosnian guy about a week ago. He is 43 and lives with his parents, which is a huge obastacle.  He really wants to learn more and comt to church and be baptised, but his mom told us if we ever came back again she would call the police. Not sure what to do there. When she came to the door, I don't think its possible for a bosnian woman to look any more furious. 

  We had zone meeting this week. It was really good. President Larkin actually attended it and gave the training.  His training was awesome. He talked about two things that contribute to faith. One of things is action (obedience) and the next one is power (sacrifice to charity). And that the action is just doing the missionary things, but to tap in to God's power we have to totally forget our will.  So we have to sacrifice because we love the people, not just so that others will think were great missionaries.  It was really good. He talked about the latter day work. How the priesthood was a promised blessing to Abraham and his posterity but then they were wandering in the wilderness for 40 years and all the priesthood holders died. But that the latter day work is too fulfill those promises and blessings that were promised to Israel.  

  So its kinda funny.  Sis Robins daughter Hannah is visiting from school. Sis Robins told us that she is planning to go on a mission. Sis Robins tells us everything, she's a big chatter.  But we had to promise not to say anything, because Hannah doesnt want anyone to know for some reason.  She has been asking us all these questions about missions and stuff and we have to pretend like we don't know anything about her wanting to go on a mission.  

  Well it seems like no one is excited to go back to school. I'm glad the olympics are over so everyone will stop talking about it.  I'm doing good on supplies.  My pants are fine. I pair of pants got torn from the gears on the bike but Sis Robins can fix basically anything. 

Love, Elder Clark 

Olympic Torture

Dear Family,

  It was a pretty good week.  Yesterday wasn’t the best.  I am not a very good faster and the three investigators that said they were coming and one of them had a ride with a member didn’t make it too church so that wasn’t too good.  Also the ward missionary who organizes the meals is gone for two weeks and no one signed up for dinner yesterday or today. 

  We survived on bike for a few days, but just barely.  I hurt my shin pretty bad. We were riding down this hill and then someone was calling us. So I was trying to take the phone out of my pocket, as I was doing that, a member was driving by and honked at us and so unconsciously i tried to wave.  Just as I was doing all that the hill leveled and there was an incline for this 5 foot sidewalk. I somehow survived the incline, but was still going a pretty good speed and didn’t have very good balance. I didn’t exactly make the incline going down that ended the side walk. The pedal did a pretty good number to my shin. But we only had to ride bikes for three days..it wasn’t too bad.

  Investigator wise, we should have another baptism on the 18, just need them to come to church this Sunday.  We need to solidify a lot of our investigators and keep finding.  Were hoping that this nine year old gets baptized this month.  She is in an active family, but I guess she is deathly scared of the water, so she hasn’t been baptized yet. But it’s a really sensitive situation and we don’t want to offend anyone. 

But that is about it. There hasn’t been too much going on.  The Olympics are kindof hard to miss. The Robins have been watching, and we can hear the tv from our bedroom. It’s been a little tortuous.  The ward is getting really excited about missionary work. There have already been more baptism this year than any other year. 

The work is going good.  Its finally getting hot. It was in the 90’s the last two days.  It was sort of nice to have the hot weather. Elder Yamashita didn’t like it too much though.  Hope everyone has a good week!

Love Elder Clark

Gun!

Dear Family,

  Well this week was fantastic.  There were many miracles.  Jordan and Connor will be baptised this saturday.  Their mom has consented and they have been interviewed.  The mom consenting is such a miracle.  About two months ago, we were only able to talk with them when they came to church with their dad, but things progressed so they we could teach them.  We also had 7 investigators at church.  Julie and Donna came.  We found them last Sunday. Did service for them on Wednesday. By service, I mean a hour and a half of really hard work. Then on saturday we put them on date.  They came on Sunday, and loved church. They are progressing well.  Echo and Hannah were there, who are also a part member family.  Echo is the one from Lee Summit.

  Right now we have 7 people on date. President Larkin has called us too fulfill the prophecy of Joel and to dream dreams and see visions and teach as the sons of Mosiah. We are starting to see that in May Valley.   Bishop Jarman is so excited.  He gave a great talk on sunday about bring others unto Christ. Usually we cringe when missionary work is talked about, and their are investigators there.  But it was great. After Sacrament meeting was over. He was basically running around the chapel, outside, to the foyer to talk with all of our investigators.  I probably won't have another Bishop, who makes missionary work as much as a priority as Bishop Jarman.  But that might not be saying much, as I might stay in May Valley till the end of my mission. 

  By the way Elder Yamashita and I are both staying in May valley for at least another transfer.  Elder Park is no longer the assistant, I hope he comes to Bellevue South as a zone leader.  We need him. Our zone is kind of falling flat right now. 

  A funny experience from the week.  We were tracting in this very private and exclusive neighborhood. Its on a mountain, and if you yelled, your neighbor wouldn't be able to hear you.  We weren't seeing much sucess and we got to this house and the front/side yard had a hill on it. The man was at the top of it, but his two BIG dogs were in between us and the man.  We said who we were and I asked what would it mean to him to draw closer to God at this time in his life?  But I was a little distracted because the dogs were still growling at his.  The man took a couple steps closer and looked behind him real quick and said "he's on my hip pocket". I didnt quite catch it, so I said pardon me.  And he said it again then paused.

  Side note: if you have ever wondered if I watched too much Jason Bourne or 24, the answer is yes!

  The first thing that came to my mind was....sniper? My head was exactly to the right of his right hip, on a downward incline.

  After a few seconds he elaborated more and said that he had a church and wasn't interested. We offered service and wished him a good night.

  With the CD. There are no versions I want in particular.  Traditonal means the "Mormon tabernacle" so non traditonal would be something not too crazy but has some variety in it.  With the combo one, I just heard those two songs being together once. 

 

 I do have a pretty good handle on being a district leader by now.  I do a 20 minute training at district meeting each time and I call nightly and see how their day was, and make sure their doing good and full of faith and ready for tomorrow. We do have texting, we text a lot.  We communicate throughout the week with Bishop that way.
 

 I have been reading the talk "The Challenging and Testifying Missionary" everyday for the past week. Probably the best talk on missionary work. And I'm just striving with every contact to bear powerful testimony to help them feel the spirit and right when they do, challenge them to follow Christ by being baptised.  It's worked pretty good this past week. 

  Well were going to shop then play some tennis. Have a good week!

 

Love, Elder Clark

a faithful home teacher

Dear Family,

 Well to start by answering your questions from last week. No we did not get a new mission president.  President Larkin and Sister Larkin did hit there two year mark a week ago though. Which means they will leave before I do next summer.  The recent converts are doing great. Mercedes is moving in about a week, so we are working on a transition with her new ward.  Todd and Samantha came with us last night to the mission home for a new member fireside. It was really good.

 This guy in his 40's bore his testimony and told his story.  He went on a date with a girl, and as they were waiting for their food they came to the topic of football. The girl mentioned that Andy Reid when she lived in Philadelphia came to her house often. He said he was really surprised and asked why.  The girl took a deep breath and said, "he was my home teacher".  He ended up getting baptised and they will be married soon. It was really funny. And what made it even more hilarious President Larkin was the first one to starting laughing after she said he was my home teacher.  I thought it was a pretty cool story.  Lots of credit to Andy Reid being a faithful home teacher.

  May Valley is really starting to explode.  We put a two sons in a part member family on date for the end of this month. And we are working with two more kids in a part member family and they should be baptised soon.  Actually one of the part member families just moved in with a part member family, and guessed where they moved from?? Lee Summit. So I was able to create a really good relationship with  the Dad (Dana). We talked a lot, I guess he did some work in Lenexa.  And his daughter who is 15, who isnt baptised, was wearing a harry potter shirt, So we were instantly friends. God works in mysterious ways. 

  We also found a couple who are in their 50's  last night before the fireside. Linda, the wife, has had almost every health problem you can have. Internal bleeding, Hepatitis C, Brain Cancer (2x, current), and has two non healing wounds.  They are both great and should be at church next sunday. 

 

Sounds like everything is going good.  Kind of hitting that slower part of the summer, the three or four weeks before school starts.  Boomerang sounds busy, so that is good. The rooms look really good.  Wes, you always need to tuck longer. I cant believe Nash went to the Lakers, thats crazy and Allen to the Heat. 

 Well transfers are next Sunday. I am pretty sure I will be staying. My gut tells me Elder Yamashita might be getting the guillotine from May Valley. But we will see.

 Also it's time for a new CD 

1. The Spirit of God......

 

  Have a great week!

Lots of Love, Elder Clark

What do people think we do in Sacrament Meeting?

Dear Family,

  This week was pretty good. Kind of a long week, it seemed like.  July 4th was not very good.  We didn't really have anything to do so we tracted, and the only people to talk to us was Jehovah's Witness..because they don't celebrate holidays.  So we had two lessons with them, that weren't too productive.  Then we couldn't sleep. I didn't fall asleep until midnight because of all the fireworks that were going off.  There were so many, it felt like we were in a war zone.  We were happy when it was over. 

 The week was kind of slow. We put a 14 year old girl on date.  She has 9 sisters and two brothers and her dad is fine with them learning and being taught. But she went to Mexico so hopefully we will be able to teach them sometime next week.  Also one of our investigators dropped us because of anti. We were going to visit her and the window was open and we could hear her talking on the phone so we go up and knock on the door. She comes over to the door and asks who it is and we tell her. Then she goes onto to say that she is on the phone with christian evangelist fellowship and to come back another time. We leave and go around the corner and we could still hear her talking so we did a little reconnaissance.  Our investigator starts telling the lady on the phone about the church tour that she went on with us last week.  And the evangelist lady said, "you didn't go to a service did you?", and her reply was oh no never.  So that didn't turn out too well.

 This week is zone conference so that will be fun. We are doing a tournament of preach my gospel. We have to have all the paragraph topics of the four lessons memorized. I have them down pretty good, Elder Yamashita is struggling. It would be hard to memorize words that you don't know what all of them mean. But he is getting there.

  Wesley baseball game sounds exciting.  That's pretty cool that he almost hit an out of park home run.  I bet he was pretty happy about that.  That's too bad that tanner didn't get any of that free stuff or get to go down to Dallas.  I feel they should of made sure of being able to receive the prize before they played. 

 We are finally getting some sunny weather. It has been sunny and in the 80's the past three days. 

 Have a good week!

Love, Elder Clark

Why I back out of the room...

Dear Family,

  It was an amazing week!  We had two baptisms on Saturday.  Todd and Samantha were baptised.  They are an 14 and 11 year old.  They are going through a rough time.  Their mom and them just moved here from Branson.  Their mom has some mental issues, the doctors believe its schizophrenia.  But the both them are great. They have such great spirits.  Todd asked me to baptise him, so I did.  And he is really excited to receive the priesthood next Sunday.  There were many miracles this week. We found  a couple new investigators who can hopefully get to church this week.  

  Something really sad happened last monday. I was giving myself a haircut and it was like 4:30, so I was rushing because we had dinner at 5. And go to cut the back of my head and I must of rushed getting the clip because it fell off and I knicked the back of my head.  Which created a bald spot of about 2 by 2 inches.  Thankfully it has grown back so its not too noticeable anymore.  We played tennis last preparation day, and we will likely play again today.  It was pretty fun.

  Last week we taught 18 lessons with 0 member lessons. So that was really good.  Really productive lessons and its the most we've had here in May Valley for some time.  People are already shooting off fire works.  I feel like the 4th is going to be a little crazy. I'm not sure yet, but I think we will have to be in early on that night. I hope everything goes well for Boomerang on that day.

   Thats too bad that Wesley sprained his ankle. Must of been a pretty bad sprain.  Wes have you been going to pool a lot?  How is it this year? Sounds like Reagan had a really good camp.  At least in basketball. The camp in the summer basically decided the team.  They have a pretty good idea of the teams after the camp. 

 I did hear the country is in a heat wave. Its funny cause Seattle hasnt got above 70 in the past two weeks.  We haven't hit summer yet.  Hope everyone has a good week!

 

Love, Elder Clark 

Bitter Water and Mt. Si....couldn't resist

Dear Family,

 It was a really great week! We had an awesome lesson last night.  A sister in our ward called us on Tuesday and asked if we could come give her sister a blessing. We found out her sister will be staying the summer and has two unbaptised kids.  We gave all three blessings and set up a lesson for Sunday night.  Well last night we had a lesson with them. Taught the restoration and put them on date for this weekend. It was great. We also had a new investigator at church last Sunday. He is Filipino, and we tracted into him and he said to come back on Saturday. So we did and had a lesson with him. We committed him to come to church the next day. We go over in the morning with our Ward mission leader and he is in his car waiting for us. He jumps out and runs over to us and asks if what he is wearing is ok? He was wearing a suit.  He had to leave after Sacrament meeting.  But we committed him to come next week. 

 Other things that happened this week, we had leadership training on Friday.  It was a little different.  The Renton stake youth between 16-22 were there. And we each trained one of them on giving the first lesson and planning so that was kind of cool.  Also I went on exchange to Mt Si Friday night.  The work was good. I just don’t like going out to Mt Si. The water is terrible.  Again took the quickest shower of my life.  I’ll have to go out there again and do the morning schedule with them. There having a few struggles with that. So that means we’ll have to wake up at 5, to get there by 6:15. 

 That’s cool that Wesley got his bike back. Who ended up winning the Heat and the OKC series? I hope not the Heat. 

We had a couple of nice days this past week.  Everyone says after the fourth the weather will be better…we’ll see. I guess this is one of the worst Junes in history regarding rain.  How is the fourth looking for Boomerang?

Youth Conf sounded fun. The youth in our ward had youth conference as well. 

Can you get me Mitch Mansour’s address?

Hope everyone has a good week!

Love, Elder Clark

Sacrament Picnics

Dear Family,

  Well when missionaries say it was one of those weeks.  We had one of those weeks.  We don’t have a lot of investigators right now, so we are doing a lot of tracting.  I’ve noticed that I have tracted the area out about twice by now and three times some places.  But we’ll keep finding people. 

  We gave talks in Sacrament meeting.  Elder Yamashita bore his testimony and I spoke on “The Rescue for Real Growth” and basically just focused if we love the savior we will feed his sheep.  It went pretty good.  Our ward had a picnic on Saturday, it was great.  We got two or three nonmembers there and two less actives there and Mercedes (recent convert) also was in Attendance.  I joked around with Bishop that we needed to have a Sacrament picnic.  He liked the idea but didn’t know if the handbook would. 

  Mercedes is doing well. She has attended church every Sunday.  The bishop and sis Robins is helping her get a job at Desert Industries. We went with her to the mission home in Mercer Island on Sunday night to a new member fireside.  It was good, she was able to bear her testimony. 

  I am doing good on shirts and everything. You would think it would be warming up here but not yet.  We still are getting a lot of rain.  Everyone says the weather gets better after the 4^th..so we will see.

  As to what Elder Yamashita and I talk about, we mostly just talk about the work.  He knows a lot about the Sports in America but that’s about it.  Or that’s all that he can articulate in English, but his English is getting a lot better.

  Sounds like a normal summer at home. That’s too bad that Wesley’s bikes got stolen.  It’s too bad that people do that.  I miss working the basketball camp. I loved doing that.  The very little that I have thought about it, being a teacher and coaching basketball is something I would really love to do in the future.

 This week we won’t have a lot of time.  We have leadership council this week and that takes about 12 hours.  But it will be good. I love hearing from Pres. Larkin.  I really enjoyed the Wosley family pics.  Don’t tell them this but they look old! I can’t believe how many little ones there are! I think I figured out what was wrong with the pics. So I will send some next week!

Well have a great week!

Love, Elder Clark

May Valley it is

Dear Family,

  It was a pretty good week. We had a baptism. Finally! It went great. Elder Yamashita performed both ordinances. He was pretty nervous but he did good in English.  I did not get transferred neither did Elder Yamashita. So I will be in May Valley for at least 7 months.  That's a long time, but I love it.  I don't think there was very many transfers this transfer.  Only one person in my district got transferred.  If cougar mtn (the sisters) is in my district again, they are going to be in trio this transfer. So that will be a little crazy. 

  Right now we are really trying to find new investigators. We only have two progressing right now. So we will be doing a lot of tracting and finding activities.  Elder Tingey went home yesterday, that's a little weird. Also one of the assistants went home. And the new assistant is Elder Brown.  So that's cool. 

  Not a lot to say this week.  Were speaking on Sunday, haven't got the topic yet. Hopefully we get that before Saturday night. 

Sounds like Reagan had a good time. They did a lot of activities.  Wesley finally got a "W". That's good to hear. Have you sent the talk? I haven't got it yet, if you have.  After this transfer I will be out really close a year. And I have a feeling the last year will go by so fast. It's a little scary.  I've come to realize being a missionary is so much easier. It's stressful, but it comes from caring about others. On a mission you really don't have to think about yourself just others. 

  But anyway, have a good week. Let me know if you got the pics I emailed. It was kind of difficult getting them to send.

 

Love, Elder Clark

ahh! The tension between gatherers and sifters...my boy is now a real missionary!

Dear Family,

  Riding a bike in May Valley is terrible. This week we had to ride bikes till Friday. My legs were shot.  But it was relatively a good week. We didn't have our baptism, which was sad. Its been pushed back to next week.  Hopefully our bishop will still allow her to be baptised.  Mercedes' family is looking for a condo to move to, and there are no condos in our area.  So she will be moving out of our ward and that concerns our bishop with the transition and everything.  From the missionaries point of view she needs to be clean as soon as possible and the transition will be tough either way so why not let her receive the holy ghost? Also one of the  members of the ward council raised some concerns on whether or not she was qualified.  He asked some good questions, questions that should be asked before someone is baptised but the way he asked them were sort of cantankerous.  Like "are you teaching the Book of Mormon?" But all is well that ends well. Hopefully she will be baptised next week.

  This is the last week of the transfer. Another transfer has come and gone....way too fast.  I feel like it's 50/50 on whether or not I will be transferred.  But life is going good in May Valley. We put two part member twins on date for baptism yesterday so that was great.  Sis Robins has been out of town for the past several days.  Hopefully they don't get back until tomorrow we have some cleaning up to do before they get back.  We get a little lackadaisical in being diligent with the dishes and others miscellaneous things when they are gone. 

  We have been asked to give talks, not this Sunday but the following. Which will be good.  Get to cry repentance to a captive audience about them not doing their part in finding...just kidding. Kind of. In all seriousness, May Valley is great ward. Lots of willing members, who will do things at the drop of a hat. Bishop Jarman is very missionary minded, which is awesome.  But in the eyes of all missionaries, members could always find more.   

  We have been doing some re-activation recently. Which I have found to be pretty cool.  With the senior couple in our ward working with the less-actives we don't do too much, but we have tracted into some inactive members.  We have been teaching them and a couple of them are making the journey to return to being active members.  I never really learned how to do less active work in the beginning of my mission, but I've learned that you have to treat them just like an investigator.  Be bold. Extend commitments. And get fellowship. 

  This week was one of the hardest finding weeks.  It seemed like no one was interested. I don't think we had a single tracting lesson. Usually I'm pretty good at being able to say two prayers and share a quick message at the doorstep. But this week was just difficult. 

  Sounds like things are still up and going back home. That's cool that you get to go to Dallas.  Got an email from Drew.  He was wondering why he hasn't got an email forwarded or the blog updated.  His guess as to why, was a little radical.  I bet Wesley and Tanner are rejoicing this week while Reagan is at camp.  But sounds like it should be pretty fun. Boomerangs must be in the swing of summer, with 70% of the rentals being water pieces.  There are pros and cons to that.  Well have a good week. It's going to be a busy preparation day today.  Need to catch up on some letters that I have been procrastinating. Surprise I know.  And we have to clean and then go play basketball. Then back to work for the week.

Love, Elder Clark

Letter to Wes

Wes did the best job writing this week...so he got the letter home

Hey Wes,

 Sounds like a pretty good week.  A few games in baseball.  A least you are scoring.  How is the pool this year? I miss swimming, but I'll be back next summer to go swimming.  Who are you rooting for in the playoffs? I hope the celtics win. I really don't want the Heat to win. 

  The last several days, we have been on bike. We are out of miles for the month so we have to bike. My legs are so tired. Yesterday for preparation day we took a 5 hour nap because we were so tired.  May Valley is not a bike area at all. But my legs are getting really strong.  I haven't played basketball for the last two or three week.

 This Sunday we will have a baptism so that is really exciting. Elder Yamashita will get to do his first baptism and confirmation. 

 Last week we went to the temple. We took some pics, I'll send them next week.  I can't believe it is alreayd June.  How is the weather in Kansas. Is it really hot yet?  We have a pretty good summer so far. When it doesn't rain, it is about 75 degrees and feels really good. 

 Last friday, I went on exchange with the Mount Si elders.  And the water they had was really gross. I took the quickest shower of my life. It smelled really bad.   It smelled like a moldy bouncer..

  On sunday we had dinner with these members. And they picked up a cheesecake from safeway.  We ate about a 1/4 of it. Then they gave the rest of it to us. It was awesome.

  Well I have to go to district meeting.  June is going to be an exciting month.  Are mission is going to baptise 100 people. And when we do that, President Larkin is going to climb Mt. Si and put a flag on the top of it.  Have a great week! Don't work to hard:)

Brayden likes Mercedes...the investigator!

Dear Family,

Well the reason that I am writing today, is because we went to the temple this morning. It was great.  This week has been really good. Except, for the part that I had 3 or 4 sinus headaches. It was really nice last week, and that must have been bad for my allergies.

Our new on date Mercedes came to church was great. It went perfect, Sis Robins picked her up and she was there early and met everyone that she could. She is a really sweet spirit.  She is so nice. It’s been a great blessing to be able to teach her. She accepts everything, and reads a lot of what we give her.  She is on date to be baptized on the 3^rd of June. She is really excited for that. She called us Monday morning and told us she couldn’t wait for baptism.   

Everything is going pretty good though.  Summer is going to fly by.  We are already half way done with this transfer. 

Can you look for a talk that Elder Holland gave at the MTC to missionaries? It’s about 50 minutes long. If you can find, I would really like that.

That’s funny that you saw Noah at Papa John’s. He’s a funny person.   I have a feeling that Mitch got pretty frustrated with not winning, but I'll be back..

But have a great week. I'll send some pics that we took at the temple next week.

Love, Elder Clark    

Hoops Japanese style

Dear Family,

 Well this week was really busy and fast.  We had Elder Golden visit our mission this weekend and till Tuesday. There was a special zone conference on Friday which was really good. And, after we had leadership training. He answered the question about how Preach my Gospel came about. It was pretty interesting and it’s actually correlated with raising the bar. 

Proselyting wise, not a lot to report. We found some new investigators this week so that was good. Also we had 5 investigators at sacrament meeting, which was great.  It’s a little weird for an investigator to come for the first time on a fast and testimony meeting. But it was really good. Anthony came, he called us Sunday morning and was like, “I think I am lost”, so we had to help him find the church.  Judy also came but she ended up dropping us after, which was weird especially since we had just helped her stop smoking. 

Elder Park is still in the mission. He has about 9 months left. He is still an assistant so I get to see him a lot.   We always sit together for lunch, when the meetings have lunches.  He is doing great, he has been in Redondo for over a year. 

For mother’s day, I am not sure when we will call. Probably sometime in the afternoon after church.  So be on call.  We have to limit the Skype call to 45 mins.

We play basketball every Preparation Day.  Elder Yamashita is pretty good. He has some Japanese style.  Today we are having a district activity.  Were going to play pickle-ball. Its like tennis but with wooden paddles and a wiffle ball.  When I was with Elder Bunton and Elder Park we played it all the time for Preparation Day.  We got pretty competitive. 

So that’s about it. The pics from the cultural day look really cool. There is a tongan elder  here from Independence and his family was in the cultural event as well.  Have a good week. Talk to you Sunday!

Love, Elder Clark

Campsites and wards, leave them..

Dear Family,

 This week was actually really good. The last week before transfers is usually the hardest to stay focused and the district goals are usually pretty low. But we had a really good week.  We found a new inv named Charlie who is on date and he came to church the first Sunday. I think he liked it, it was different from what he was accustomed to but it was good. I was a little disappointed in the ward.  I didn't feel there was enough welcomes and only bishop asked his name and actually had a real introduction. Also Jordan and Connor Stanley were at church.  Their dad is a member but the mom isn't. Parents are divorced, so it's kind of a sensitive situation. The mom just recently  gave permission for them to be taught. So were proceeding with caution and are having  them pray right now to be baptised on the 26th. Also we had Katie at church. Who we tracted into, and recently moved here, she has been in active for the past two years. She really enjoyed it. And we found a Kenyan this week. I was so excited. Kenyans are so nice. His name is Anthony and he has been to our church around the world for different music programs but knows nothing about our doctrine or religion.  He said he would come to church next Sunday. 

  I didn't get transferred, neither did Elder Yamashita. So that's good. I was a little nervous. I really didn't want to get transferred. When you get transferred you always want the ward to be in a better position then when you came. I don't know if were there yet but were getting close and moving in the right direction. 

  All our finding right now is from tracting or contacting.  And that's pretty prominent throughout the mission. This is a tracting mission.  We'll get the occasional referral, and those are usually really solid, but not too often.  We tract about 4 hours everyday. Every missionary tracts from 5-7 every night, and then were suppose to tract for 2 more hours sometime during the day.  We usually have about 3 or 4 set up lessons and then we fill the rest of the day with potentials and formers and just talking to everyone we see.

 I have actually received two letters and a package from the Flores family (Spanish family that got baptised in Jovita Creek).  They sent be a birthday package. Which I kind felt bad about they got me a tie and the package was big.  I didn't really want them to spend money on me when their not the best well off. But what can you do...They are doing really good, going to church every Sunday, Jacob got the priesthood and is passing the sacrament.  So that's awesome.  And the investigator that we watched the Joseph Smith movie with on Christmas ended up getting baptised this month.  After I left he dropped the elders because he didn't get an answer. But I guess he called Elder Tingey at the beginning of April and said that he broke up with his girlfriend and was ready to come to church and prepare for baptism. That's was cool to here.  Nina Townsend and Mike Crump are still going to church they were part member families so they are solid.  Mike Crump actually got the Melchizedek priesthood and was able to give his son a baby blessing.  I haven't heard anything about the Grays. I knew that because of the time switch, Scott was going to the 1:00 service, but hopefully their still doing good. 

 I like my zone. I think there were a lot transfers in it so, it will be a little different. Elder Aiken got transferred  who was the zone leader, so we will have a new zone leader.  And Elder Birati who was in my district got transferred.  So sometimes you forget that sister missionaries are girls and do girl things.  Last night Sis Hirano was a little panicky with the transfers and everything. And yes, I am learning a little Japanese.

  This week is going to go by real fast.  We have a meeting on Wed., then on Friday we have a special zone conference because Elder Christoffel Golden Jr. (gave the talk Small, and Simple things in general conf a few years) is visiting our mission.  Then on Sunday he is doing a special missionary investigator fireside.  So it should be a good week. 

  Doing good with everything right now.  Ask Jordan what were the 3 or 4 things that he really focused on and helped him have success on his mission...Seems so weird that he is back, feels like a few months ago that he left.

 Have a great week. No, I have not made any mothers day plans. Probably won't until the week before, when we get an announcement about it. 

Love, Elder Clark

leading with charity

Dear Family,

 This week went by so fast. We had zone conference on thursday which was really great and fun.  Although our zone came in last in the game where we had to know all the main pts of the paragraphs of the commandments in lesson 4. I had them all memorized though.  Thankfully Elder Bunton gave me all the paragraph pts of all the lessons, so I have them down pretty good. 

 We also went on exchange this week.  Elder Aiken came to May valley with me, and Elder Yamashita went to Issaquah.  We had a really good exchange.  Saturday we got out of a lesson with a recent move in less active named Katie. She is 19 and she lives with her cousin, who isnt a member so hopefully we can start teaching her. We  committed Katie to come to church next week and also scheduled a church tour with her on wednesday. But after got out of the lesson we saw someone at the next house and ran to talk with her. She wasnt interested. Then we saw someone on the street below washing her car, she wasnt interested. Then we saw someone a few houses down and ran to talk with him.  He kindof was making fun of us and pretending to not know english. I know spanish well enough I was able to tell him who we were  and what we were doing. But then a girl walked over and said.  "i'll listen".  So we just turned away from that guy and talked with her. Before the opening prayer, we asked what is she looking for right now? Everyone who lets us talk to them is looking for something and especially someone who comes up to us and says I'll listen. She sat down and took about a minute to respond. Through tears she told us that all she wants is to get her son back and that she has made really bad decisions, resulting in CPS taking her four year old son. We taught her about the atonement and how she could overcome her addictions and put her on date to be baptised.  She was crying the entire time, it was a pretty emotional lesson.  Then the guy comes over and apologizes to us and tells us his real name and asks us to teach him as well. So we taught him, and ashley again.  We put him on date and scheduled a church tour with them that night.  Unfortunately that didnt show up to the place where we and the bishop were going to pick them up and when we called she didnt answer.  It was heart breakening.  Probably the greatest gift as a missionary is to have charity.  To love and not judge.  The sad thing about drugs is they can't make good decisons when they are on them.  So were going to wait a couple of days and go back. She visits her moms house every tues and thurs to see her son for three hours.  We met her mom and we will probably go to her moms house on thursday and talk with her. 

  That was about it for our week.  We had ward conference and the stake president came and spoke.  It was really good about being meek and lowly in heart and he used examples of the savior when he was meek and lowly.  The temple dedication sounded fun. We have had a stretch of great weather.  It hit 77 yesterday. Which is pretty hot for here.  This is the last week of the transfer. So I'll be emailing on tuesday next week. I doubt I will get transferred but I never know.

 

Love, Elder Clark

Sacrifice and Judging

Dear Family,

 It was a pretty good week this week.  On tuesday I held a exchange with Elder Birati who is microindonesia. It was pretty fun.  We found 3 new invs and put someone on date so it was good that it was a powerful experience for him.  He was telling me a story that he got mission call and his acceptance to represent his country in the olympics on the same day. Obviously he chose to come on his misson.  He was saying that his family and the whole villiage wanted him to choose the olympics. 

  We tracted into a less active person who we havent received her records yet.  She is a mom with a 12 and 13 year old and she was telling us about how she is about 90% sure that her and her husband were going to get a divorce.  It's amazing how the spirit helps people to open up to us.  She said that she was baptised when she was 16, but it might have been for the wrong reasons.  Her dad was really against it and she didnt like him.  But she said that her baptism was one of the best days of her life.  We are hopefully going back to teach her this week and her two kids. 

  We have zone conference this week so I dont have to prepare a district meeting.  We had a meeting with president.  He talked a lot about doing baptism interviews and that we can't take them lightly because that is one of the most important events in that persons life.  They have the opportunity to show there repentance to an authorized representative of the Church and  in doing that, that will give them the strength to continue on the right path.  I also gained an immense understanding of the atonement.  President talked about the scripture in D&C "let no man thinketh he is a ruler, but let God rule he that judgeth". When we are doing the interview we have to let go of all emotions and let the spirit decide.  And he told us about a interview that he did.  The man confessed to doing some very despicable things and he said that he couldnt believe that someone would do some of the things that he did.  But then the man went on to tell him how his dad left before he was born and that his mom was an addict. When he was 4 or 5 his mom, when she didnt have enough money for the drugs would give him to the dealers and they would beat him.  And President thought to himself how on earth can I judge this man. And he related that to us that we cant judge anyone.  Only Christ can.  He was the one that went through everything, he knows everyones circumstance and situations and their pains and sorrows. And because of that he is only one who can truly judge and thats why we have to rely on the spirit. 

  It is already week 5 of the transfer. There going way too fast. I feel like it was just transfers a week ago. 

  Everyone sounds really busy.  Reagans games sound exciting. It's surprising that wes isnt excited about baseball. 
Wes how are the celtics doing this year?  Someone said the royals are starting pretty good.  I didnt know the knickerbockers lived in WA. What ward are they in?  But I got to go, were playing volleyball as a district ..so it should be fun. Have a great day! Oh, and Happy late Birthday Mom!

 

Love, Elder Clark