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