Monday, February 24, 2014
Hello everyone!!! This week has flown by so fast, it's just absolutely crazy... First off, my new area is downtown Salt Lake City. I'm in the Avenues!!! My companion and I, out of the entire mission of 180 missionaries, are the closest to the temple and to the capitol building and just basically all of downtown. It's really cool. I definitely lucked out. Apparently this is a highly wanted area for missionaries. My companion and I cover the Ensign Stake which is one of the oldest stakes in all of Utah. Our stake has 5 wards and 3 branches. Needless to say, our Sundays are super busy going back and forth to sacrament meetings and ward councils. Two of our wards meet in the Joseph Smith Memorial building in temple square, so that was really neat to go to. Soooo Elder Holland and Elder Oaks both live in my Stake and attend wards that we go to as well.... No big deal... Elder Holland lives like a block from where we live. Anyways, we live in an older man's house upstairs. His name is Brother Wilson. He's really interesting. He was a cancer surgeon for a number of years and he and his wife sang in the Tabernacle Choir as well. So my new companion is amazing... He's basically the best missionary in the field. everyone has told me that i got super lucky to have him train me. His name is Elder Ackley from Gilbert, Arizona. He's been out 21 months and was an AP for like 6 months.... That's crazy. We're both brand new to this area though. That's called being white washed into an area, we replaced the two missionaries that were here before us. They don't normally do that because one will stay behind to help the new missionary get acquainted to the area, so we had a hard time the first couple of days. The main problem was that the missionaries before us didn't leave any records of who they were teaching or anything like that. We had to get all the information we needed from Bishops and Ward Mission Leaders. But it's all good. We're on track now. We already got our first baptism!!!!!!! We baptized Jaydon Allen on Saturday. It was really cool. We only met with him twice before the baptism, and one of the times was for a baptismal interview. He's fourteen and a really good kid. I spoke at his baptism on baptism... haha it went great though. I've only been here a week, but i'm already starting to see miracles happen. My companion and i got a referral last night from some Sister missionaries for a guy named Mario. He's living in a homeless shelter downtown that is out of our mission, but since 2 of our branches in our stake are homeless branches, we got to go teach him downtown. Anyways, we get there not knowing what to expect but he told us his story and said that he's been going to one of the homeless branches and has a Book of Mormon and has enjoyed it so far. We just talked to him about the Gospel and he said that he's been having a really hard time lately, but going to church has been helping a lot. So we just invited him to be baptized in two weeks and he said yes!!! It was amazing. The spirit was so strong while we were teaching him, and it seemed like he was really soaking up what we were saying. My companion and I have really good chemistry and when we teach, the spirit seems to flow and guide us really well. So we bore our testimony to him and set up another appointment with him tomorrow. I'm so excited to go back. I have met so many interesting people. Most of the people we are going to be working with in this area are less active members, so we won't see too many baptisms. That's okay though! We have a goal to gain the member trust in this area and to really boost their missionary work. Everyone we've met so far seems to really like us, so i guess that's good. We visited one of our ward missionary couples last night just to meet them and get to know them. They were so great. They're just a young couple that's going to school and working part time, but they are also in charge of setting up our dinner appointments for this week. We are so blessed, we have a car, a great place to live, and dinner appointments every night of the week. Anyways, the husband asked for a blessing while we were there, so i gave my first blessing.... So nerve racking. It was a blessing of comfort. I felt the spirit so strongly through the whole thing, it was amazing. I wish i could go on and on about the people i've met so far, but i just don't have the time. I'll try to get my address up on here, so if anyone wants to write to me or send me stuff you can. I love and miss you all. I pray for everyone back home on a daily basis. I love and miss Taylor and Ralphie soooo much. I smile every time i think about them.
Love, Elder Clark
Monday, February 17, 2014
Oh my goodness. So much to say and so little time to say it. This week has been an up and down roller coaster for sure... My companion and i started teaching 2 investigators this week. One of them is one of our teachers that just acts like an investigator that he taught on his mission. The other one is hired by the MTC to come here and let missionaries talk to them. It's called TRC. So our TRC investigator is Thrijae(Three-jay). He's from California and was going to Stanford and playing volleyball until his best friend's father got really sick. He then decided to move with his best friend's family out here to Utah to attend BYU. He HATES it here. He feels like no one really cares about him. He told us that everyone is so fake and when they find out that he's not a member they treat him so differently. Sad huh? So our first appointment was on Tuesday. He wouldn't even let us in the door. We sat at his door for like 10 minutes just talking to him and trying to get him to let us share a quick message. He FINALLY let us in, but he wouldn't really talk much. He put up this wall between us and just kept calling us fake and that we didn't really care about him. So that was rough. We left feeling so defeated and discouraged because he came up to us afterwards and asked us not to ever come back. At one point, he even said he would rather talk to other missionaries instead of us. That was the worst I've felt the entire time I have been here. I had NO IDEA what to do. We had another appointment on Wednesday, but he cancelled..... -_- So Thursday rolls around, and we still have no idea what to do or say to this investigator. We've prayed and studied like crazy just for him, but still nothing... Thank goodness for Brother Jake Reiss. Brother Reiss is a return missionary that works as an area manager over our building floor of classrooms. He's our teacher's boss's boss. Anyways, he was on a documentary series called the District, so he's basically a celebrity here. The District was done by the church to show what missionaries actually go through. It's pretty intense. You can look it up and watch it I think. So Brother Reiss comes into our classroom on Thursday afternoon right before our appointment and asks if anyone needs help with anything. Consider our prayers answered. He laid everything out for us perfectly. We had told him about our experience with Thrijae the day before and so he knew what we were struggling with. That night with Thrijae was so amazing. I don't even remember what we said, but we got him to open up so much that he was balling his eyes out in front of us. He told us about his brother's death and how he feels responsible. He's going through tremendous depression and thinks that no one could ever love him for what he's done. Hello!!! The Gospel is perfect for you!! So as we were closing up he asked if we would say a prayer with him. HE ASKED US!! Boom. The Gospel is true. the spirit works in crazy ways. We only had one more appointment with him and that was on Saturday. We were so pumped and prepared, and thought that we had the perfect lesson for him. We get there, and he says he doesn't want to talk to us and that he's going to meet with other missionaries.... We literally had to chaise him down and force it out of him why he wouldn't talk to us. He told us that he prayed on his own and got an answer that there is a God and that He loves him. He called his family and told them about his experience and that he was meeting with the missionaries, and they literally laughed at him. He told us that his family was threatening to disown him, and said his brothers threatened to go out and hurt missionaries if he continued. We were kind of dumb founded... but the spirit helped us talk to him and we let him know that we cared for him and wanted him to be happy. We explained how we were getting transferred and that this was the last time we were meeting with him. He asked us if we really cared about him and if we really believed that he could see his brother again. We bore our testimony to him and hugged to say goodbye, but as we were leaving he asked us for a blessing. We had offered him one the previous night when he told us his life story, but he declined and said maybe another time. So we gave him a blessing of comfort and said our goodbyes. What an awesome experience though... I can't wait to get out in the field and start doing that all the time. So Tuesday we had a really good devotional by one of the 70. I sang in the choir again for that and really enjoyed it. Sunday night, we had a fireside taught by Mathew Holland, Elder Holland's son. It was Sister Holland's birthday, so ELDER HOLLAND WAS THERE!!! He talked to us briefly and introduced his son. Mathew Holland talked about Joseph Smith and the institute choir sang at different parts of his talk. It was really spiritual and testimony building. The MTC Choir doesn't normally sing on Sunday night, but we got to because of this special night. The MTC Choir and Institute Choir sang "Praise To the Man" together at the end of the talk. It was so powerful. I didn't see this, but everyone came up to me afterwards and said that the cameras zoomed directly in on my face as we were singing. Because of that, 2 return missionaries from Nashville came up to me afterwards and said hi. they recognized me on the screen and wanted to come say hi. They weren't wearing tags anymore, so i forgot their names but I recognized them both. It was so nice to see them. I also discovered that Elder Tyler Lodwick from Mount Juliet is on the floor right above me, so we've chatted a few times about home. I'm so excited to leave tomorrow morning. It feels like I've been here forever, but at the same time it feels like I just got here. I've been so blessed with the teachers I have had here and the fellow missionaries in my zone. I can't wait to get out there and do the Lord's work!!! I love you all and miss you all. I keep everyone back home in my prayers, especially my lovely girlfriend and puppy. :)
Love, Elder Clark
Monday, February 10, 2014
Taylor's Second E-mail
It's my P-Day today though, so
i'm allowed to get on and talk with home. Everything is going well here. Our
schedule is always crammed full of stuff we have to do. I'm learning and growing
a lot, and i'm really enjoying my calling as a zone leader. LOVE YOU ALL!!! And
definitely miss you all as well. I got to go to a great devotional last night
that was taught by Brother Stephen B. Allen. He talked about strengthening the
relationship with your companion and what the important things in life are. I'm
singing in the MTC Choir which is weird because i don't sing, but i didn't want
to regret not doing it. You know? I think we're singing along with the Institute
Choir for a devotional this Tuesday and Sunday. So that's a big deal i guess....
Anyways, my companion and i get along fine. His name is Elder Gebler from
Boston. He's going to my mission as well. I've goten really close to an elder in
my district who is also in my room. His name is Elder Jolley, we share a bunk
bed and talk a lot. He's 24 and went on a mission before but only was out for 6
months. We've laughed and cried together so much already. i think we've both
helped each other a lot by strengthening our testimonies and i've learned a lot
from him just by his experience of doing all of this already. Anyways, sorry i
haven't gotten to say much, i have a lot to do today. I really don't get any free
time whatsoever... I'll try and write more to you all next week.
Love, Elder CLark
On Thursday, February 6, 2014 10:14
PM, Taylor Clark wrote:
I LOVE YOU ALL!!! I've been so
busy, so you'll have to forgive me for my late email. I just got back from my
first branch meeting where my companion and i got called to be zone leaders. I'm
so excited and nervous at the same time. Zone leaders means we're over all 4
districts in our zone. That mean we're over about 40 missionaries...... That's
so crazy to think about.... I just got here. I still feel new, and yet i'm
already having to jump right into it. I can't tell you how amazing the spirit
has been here so far. My companion and i connect really well, and i think we
just feed off of that. His name is Elder Gebler from Boston. Anyways, i need to
go, but i'll try to check tomorrow for other emails. i love you all so much and
thank you for leaving that stuff for me at the mission home. Much appreciated.
Love, Elder Clark
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