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