SERVICE AND FELLOWSHIP

Well, I think it's finally getting cold here. We're supposed to get our first snow fall this week. It's been such a nice fall here though... I'm sad to see it go. We've done a ton of service this last week. We met a new family that moved here from Germany. They're remodeling an older house, so we helped them with a few things. We cut down some trees, helped somebody move, and went and volunteered at an old folks home this week. I love service so much. I feel like I never really cared about service or understood it, but since I've seen it have an impact on people, I've absolutely loved being able to do it. It's just a great way to show people how much you love them or how much you love Heavenly Father.

Right now we're teaching a guy named Kevin who is a recovering addict. To be honest, most of the people we teach in our area, are in some kind of rehab or recovery system. We try really hard to get them to focus on spiritual things and how it can help their lives. Scriptures, prayer, and church can have a big difference in an addict’s life. The concept of commitment is the hardest thing to get them to understand. Kevin's been really cool to teach though. He hasn't had much of a religious background in his life, but he's dating a girl in the church now and I think she's helping a lot.

We're teaching another lady named, Carmen. Her husband is a less-active member, and they're both recovering addicts. She's really knowledgeable about the Gospel though. She knows more than most members do. She's going to get baptized when she graduates from her rehab program. It should be around the middle of December.

This week we're going over to one of our Ward Mission Leader's houses to bake some goods to give out to people in the area that we teach. We're going to bake some cookies and a few pies. We're trying to think of creative ways to do missionary work here, so if you have any cool ideas, let me know. :)

I hope everyone is getting ready and excited for the holiday season!! I can't wait for some snow!! I love and miss all of you!! And of course, I love and miss Taylor Lindsey and Ralphie the most!! :)

Love, Elder Clark

P-Day Fun.

FRIENDS REVISITED

Wow! I feel like this has been a really long week... In a good way though. We've been pretty busy with service and being involved in the community. It's a lot of fun being in downtown Salt Lake City. There are just a lot of fun and interesting people, and you definitely get both ends of the spectrum.

One of our recent converts, Wang Yu, who got baptized about 3 months ago, just had his visa expire and couldn't get it renewed. So today he left to go back to Shanghai, China. He was able to receive the priesthood before he left though! He wants to go on a mission and help the church grow in China. He's a great guy, and I hope that I'll be able to keep in touch with him.

We got to go to the Salt Lake temple on Friday. It was amazing! We had a HUGE group for the session, about 220 people. Let's just say it took us about 3 hours to complete.... It was really cool though. The Spirit is always so strong when you're at the temple. After the temple, we did a chili dinner and talent show. They gave us all candy for Halloween and a bunch of leftover food to take home. The talent show wasn't all that great... Haha. I would have rather just stayed home and caught up on some sleep. We didn't get home till about 10:30. (Pictures from the Halloween Dinner are on this post).

The weather's been getting colder here, and I think I'm already sick. It doesn't help that we don't have a car and are outside all the time. I'll live though. :) Jose is doing so well. He even got one of the less-active people that we work with a job. (Pictures of Jose’s baptism are shown on this post).

We met a guy this last week named Frank, and apparently he just wants to get baptized. He asked us if he could just go ahead and do it... He said he was pretty sure that he was on board with everything, and just wanted to do it. Pretty cool! We still have to meet with him though, to teach him and get him to church. It looks promising though. :) 

On Saturday I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Plummer, who I served by out in WY. He is now serving in the Ensign stake up in the avenues, which was my first area. But what's even funnier is that he just got transferred from the Highland stake in Holladay, which was my second area... Haha. Anyways, we did exchanges because Linda and Leslie (my Kentucky friends) came up here to take us out to lunch. Linda cried and hugged the crap out of me when I saw her. She did the whole pinch your cheeks and everything. They both are doing well, working as nurses and trying their best to get along. They still bicker back and forth. Linda hasn't joined the church yet, but I'm still praying for her all the time. It was really good to see both of them, and now that I’m closer I'm sure I'll be able to see them a lot more. (Pictures of Linda and Leslie with Elder Plummer and myself are on this post).

I just want you all to know how much I love this work and this Gospel. It's been a great 9 months, even though it's absolutely flown by. I feel like it's all been a dream so far... Like I'm going to wake up and it will feel like it never actually happened. I'm telling you, time is totally different when you're a missionary 24/7... I love and miss every single one of you so much. I hope and pray that everyone is doing well and remembering what the important things are in life. Of course, I love and miss Taylor Lindsey and Ralphie the most. 

Love, Elder Clark

HAPPY TO BE BACK ON THE BLOG

Wow. It feels like I haven't sent one of these emails in forever. Sorry I haven't been able to update everyone the past two weeks. I've had some email complications lately on top of just being straight busy. This transfer is already over!!!!! CRAZY!!! Fastest 6 weeks ever.

Elder Gebler and I are both staying in this area, so we're both happy about that. We just had a baptism last Saturday for Jose. I'll try to attach a picture of us at his baptism on this email. Let me tell you how much I love Jose... So this man has been through soooo much stuff in his life, in and out of prison, been involved with drug smuggling, family separated and moved away, his wife left him and took his three children, and so much more. He has plenty of reasons to be a down and depressed man, right? Noooope, he's probably one of the most positive people I've ever met. He's always looking to make someone laugh or smile. He's extremely aware of other people’s needs and feelings, and tries to go out of his way to make sure everyone is okay. He's doing really well in his schooling, loving his job, and super motivated to be involved in church and the community. He understands how much God has a plan for him. He knows he's been led here for a reason and how important the Gospel now is in his life. I just love him a lot. He totally has the Spirit with him, and that's just really cool to see someone change like that!!!

One of the excommunicated guys that we teach had a really good meeting with our stake president this week! He's getting closer to his baptism!!! It still probably won't be for awhile, but it was exciting news for him, making it excited for us!! We're teaching a lot of people in drug rehabilitation, so it's been a really different experience for us. Some of them are sincere and want to change, and some struggle a lot with commitment.

I've been reading Jesus the Christ lately... It's very in depth writing and a lot of it makes you think pretty deeply. I like it a lot. I have to re-read some parts, but that's alright!

 Our mission has a big temple trip and talent show coming up this Friday because we aren't allowed to go out on Halloween. It should be fun. I'm not doing anything for the show obviously, but it'll be fun to get together as a mission to go to the temple and then have dinner and a show.

Anyways, hope everyone has a great Halloween. Everyone should send me pictures of what they dress up as! I love and miss you all soooo much!!! But of course, I love and miss Taylor Lindsey and Ralphie the most!!! 

Love, Elder Clark

SHARING GENERAL CONFERENCE

What a great week of General Conference!!! We were able to go to two sessions and take THREE INVESTIGATORS to hear the words of the Prophet and Apostles. Abas, Kuku, and Micheal are in the picture I sent. That was us at the Priesthood session of Conference. Micheal and his wife Debbie came with us to the Saturday afternoon session as well. They are both thinking about getting baptized and married here pretty soon. I think Elder Holland's talk had a big impact on both of them. Abas was able to get a headset that had an Arabic interpreter for him. He seemed to really like the messages that were shared. I'm curious to see what he thinks about everything. With his Islamic background, he has such an interesting perspective on things that I'm just not used to. It's SO COOL!!!!! We're still helping him with English and we're also going with him to the DMV tomorrow so that he can hopefully get his license to drive taxi.

We picked up a new investigator this last week and he's getting baptized on October 25th!! His name is Jose. He just moved here from California. He’s been in and out of prison his whole life. He's so cool. He tells the most amazing stories of his old life. He really wants to change now and be closer to God and Christ. He's one of 

The most sincere people I've ever met.

I have to cut this week's email short. We've had so much to do today. I hope Conference was as uplifting and inspiring for all of you as it was to me. I feel like I got some great personal revelation and guidance from the messages that were shared. One of my favorite quotes was, "When our standards lower to the standards of the world, we are in a state of Apostasy". Don't let the world shape who YOU are and what YOU believe. I love and miss all of you soooo much. I hope everyone is doing well. I love and miss Taylor Lindey and Ralphie the most!!! 

Love, Elder Clark

THE ATONEMENT IS FOR EVERYONE

I feel like we had a really good week. Our lessons, studies, and encounters with members have been really productive. We're making a lot of head way in our area. We work with a lot of excommunicated members, here in downtown Salt Lake. To be honest, it's really hard. Their pasts seem to weigh on us sometimes. It's almost as if you can feel a literal weight hanging from you... Most of them are sex offenders that have been in and out of prison. It's really good to see some of them make the right steps and want to get back on the right path. The Atonement is for everyone, and that's something we've been focusing on in our studies. How we can apply that to best help those we are teaching and working with.

We had a really good lesson with Terri this week. She's come a long way in the last month. She thinks that she might want to wait longer to be baptized. She wants to make sure that she's ready. We'll continue to teach her and keep her progressing in the Gospel. We were able to find two new investigators on Sunday!! They sort of just showed up to church. Ha ha. We have an appointment with them on Friday to teach them the first lesson. Their names are Micheal and Debbie. Micheal is from Mississippi and Debbie is from Oklahoma. They seem like nice people that are ready to hear about the Gospel.

We've been teaching a man from Iraq named Abas. He moved here about four years ago, and works as a mechanic. He doesn't know much English, so we're going over there this Wednesday to help him with his homework that he gets from a class that's teaching him English. We have a member from the Sudan named, KuKu, that speaks Arabic, so he translates for us. Abas is a really nice guy though. He came to church on Sunday, and when KuKu went to pass the sacrament, he asked if he could help too. He started meeting with us because he wants to become a Christian. He doesn't like what's happening in his home country in the name of Islam. He thinks it's all a lie and wants to get away from it. We have to be careful though because I know the Church has to be careful when Islamic people want to join the Church. It has something to do with their lives being at risk if they ever go back home. We gave him an Arabic Book of Mormon as well as an English one. Maybe we can go to Conference with him.

I can't wait for Conference this weekend! We're trying to get tickets for all of our investigators; they are our number one priority of course. I would rather give all of the tickets to them instead of us going with them. We'll see what happens though. I've been trying to prepare for conference a lot this last week. Reading past conference talks and identifying questions that I want answered, some for me and some for others. That seems to have really helped though. I hope that all of you have been preparing yourselves for the messages that the Prophet and Apostles have been preparing so hard for us. Think about how much time and preparation they put into their talks... We owe it to them to put a little effort in as well. I have a gut feeling that this is going to be a big and important Conference. So get your spiritual ears tuned in!!!!

I hope that you all know how much I love and miss every single one of you. But as always, I love and miss Lindsey and Ralphie the most!

Love, Elder Clark

BACK TO THE MOTHER SHIP

A week into my new area and so many things have happened and changed. I'm serving in the Salt Lake Central Stake. It's going to take some getting used to being back in downtown Salt Lake, but I'm excited for it. I didn't realize how much I actually missed it here. We cover the 13th Ward, 33rd Ward, Douglas Ward, 13th Branch, and 15th Branch. The two branches are downtown for people that are just getting out of prison or struggling with addiction recovery. We cover from Main St to 13th East, and from South Temple to 3rd South. When you get past 10th East our area goes down to 9th South as well. I'm really excited to be serving with Elder Gebler again!!!! He was my MTC companion, just in case you didn't know. So we're already off to a head start with being familiar with each other. We've both changed and grown immensely from our time in the MTC, but we still have a good relationship from before. :) We're both going to make this transfer a special one. We've been studying a lot on how to teach people, not lessons.

We had a really cool experience with one of our investigators this week, named Terri. We were teaching her the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson, and Elder Gebler and I had the exact same thought to say something about a principle we were teaching. She must have really needed to hear about that specific principle or something. We talked about it afterwards and recognized how it was the Spirit guiding us and teaching the lesson, not us. We ended up putting her on date to be baptized for October 18th!!!! So cool!! I think she is really solid and determined to make it to that day prepared. I know the Lord will help prepare her as well, especially with how much Satan will be trying to keep her from it. I'm so ecstatic to be back here in the valley. I know my time here is going to be precious and special. On a different note.... Some crazy things have happened in our mission this past week. Here is a statement sent out by our mission about what's been going on:

Elders and Sisters

“This has been a very busy and somewhat difficult week.  Transfers are always hectic and cause much anxiety.  Our mission has been blessed through some recent trials.  In the last week, four of our missionaries have had relatives who have passed away.  Elder Totten fell off his bike and experienced a concussion.  Elder Valdez had an emergency appendectomy.  Both of these Elders are doing well. Our dear Elder Graydon experienced a terrible reaction to a food allergy.  He is still in extremely critical condition and needs every one of us praying for him.  As a mission we need to pray in unity for the power of our Heavenly Father to bless not only Elder Graydon but for all missionaries throughout the world.”

So yeah, pretty crazy stuff. Elder Gebler and I have decided to walk in our area and not ride bikes. We've seen and heard of too many bicycle accidents happening in the downtown area where we are. Better safe than sorry! :) Hope everyone back home is doing alright. I still pray for everyone and thank Heavenly Father for all the support I get. I love and miss you all. Taylor Lindsey and Ralphie, I love and miss with allll my heart! :)

Love, Elder Clark

Footnote: Elder Graydon is awake from his medically-induced coma as of today. He spoke with his father by phone!! This is a miracle and mercy given by our loving Heavenly Father.

ELDER CLARK AND ELDER BASS AT TRANSFER MEETING

GOODBYE ROCK SPRINGS

Another transfer is over, and it's gone by so fast. I can't believe that I am about to start my 6th transfer. I still feel like a “greeny”. Sadly, I am getting transferred.... :( I have loved every bit of Rock Springs, WY. I'm sad to go, but I'm also excited to be in a new area and meet new people. Saying goodbye to the people I've grown to love in this area is the hardest thing to do. I will miss so many different people, and I know that I'll have to come back through here to visit. We've had a really good week. One of our investigators, Mariana, is now on date to be baptized for October 11th. I'm happy to see her make this step. She has such a bright spirit; I know she'll make a really strong member. It sucks that I won't be here for it, but I'm just happy she's made the decision. Elder Bass and I have come a long way together. We've grown and learned a lot from each other. I'm really happy that I was able to train him and have this experience together. I know he'll do a great job running this area. I said goodbye to Elder Page today. He flies home tomorrow morning, but he's driving down to Salt Lake tonight. We had a great time down in Manila. He was saying goodbye to a lot of the people down there that he's gotten close to, so we visited everyone in the town basically. The pictures are of the Gorge and some two-week old puppies that belong to one of the members. So cute! On Saturday, we did a wood cut with the ward in Manila. It was an all day service project that kicked our butts. We went up into the mountains and cut down trees for firewood. They think it's going to be a long winter, so we cut about 25 cords of wood. It was a ton. The whole purpose was to give the wood to the elderly and people that got hurt and couldn't do it themselves. It was a great service project that made us feel like we did something really helpful afterwards. Tonight, we're eating dinner with our investigators, the Youngbloods. They're preparing to get baptized as well. We've had some really good lessons with them. I feel like they have come such a far way since I first got here. A lot of our investigators are still struggling with smoking. It's probably the number one issue in Rock Springs. Everyone smokes or drinks. We would have about ten people get baptized tomorrow if they didn't have a problem with those two things. It's hard to see people so restricted by their addictions. I said goodbye to Vicki and Evan last night. :( They are my favorite people in the whole world. It was so hard to say goodbye. They gave me a going-away present that had one of Vicki's homemade loaves of bread, a cornbread mix (because she knows I love cornbread), and a book to replace a book that I had given her a few months ago. Inside the book was a touching note that said, "Thank you for knocking on our door. You changed our lives." It just about brought me to tears. I told them I would come back and visit them along with my parents, I also said I might have a wife or fiancé at that point too. They seemed really excited about that. We're going to try to meet up at General Conference next month as well. Hopefully that all works out. Anyways, a chapter in my mission is coming to a close, but a new one is opening up and I can't wait. I love and miss you all, as always. I especially love and miss with all my heart, Taylor Lindsey and John Ralphio Sebastian the 3^rd (Ralphie). ;)

Love, Elder Clark