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