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