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